It’s August and it’s festival time here in Edinburgh, the city bursting at the seams as the Fringe and the International Festival kicked off over the weekend, the world’s largest arts festival now in full swing, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the world’s biggest literary fest, starts next weekend (and I will be chairing a couple of events there again this year). Part of the Royal Mile is given over to the Fringe performers – with hundreds of shows it’s no easy task to get audiences, they have to fight for bums on seats, so they strut their stuff on the Mile, many in costume, some doing excerpts from their shows on the mini stages to entice audiences. It’s madly busy – almost literally wall to wall with people across the breadth of that historic thoroughfare – but it’s also a happy hunting ground for me to snap some more photos, and I tend to take a ridiculous amount this month (and the views on my Flickr tend to go mad as well as folks all over look for pics of the festival).

The first pic I shot at this year’s Fringe, actually a couple of days before it officially started, but it was on my way home from work and I thought some performers may be out already (some preview show were running by then), and my first shot was this group of Asian performers posting up their flyers for their show. Just as I lined it up the lovely lady turned around, saw me and gave me a nice big smile and wave, which was a nice way to start my festival season of photos.

Sushi Tap 2, with their rather eye-catching neon pink costumes, hard to miss, even once the Mile filled up with more people over the weekend!

Korean troupe Maro have brought Leodo: the Paradise to the Fringe

“Living” statue performer as a cyclist

Cabaret Farce

Hibiki, a troupe of traditional Japanese drummers – wonderfully kinetic performance

John Robertson’s The Dark Room

Follow the Faun!

Charming performers from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Of course all the hurly-burly of the crowds and performers and the summer sunshine can be too much for some – this chap just settled right down on the busy steps of Saint Giles Cathedral and nodded off

Waking Beauty, a look at fairy tales from a feminine perspective

This musician was singing arias, which rang out beautifully clear even across the din of the busy festival street

With their black garb and white masks the performers from Baggage were just perfect for a monochrome shot

Taiwanese dancers from Gaze of the Kavaluan

Actors from Knowledge and the Girl, a reworking of Snow White for a more feminine and sexually mature audience

Pirate gals from According to Arthur – they very kindly offered me a balloon too!

Singers from The Sweet Nothings, an all-women a cappella singing group

More pics (and larger formats) over on my Flickr page under this tag for the Fringe pics