Carnival time

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Joe

The other weekend was the start of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival (next month sees the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival all take place – summer is festival city time here). As usual the Jazz and Blues fest kicked off with the Carnival. Unlike previous years it didn’t go down Princes Street, and instead was all within the West Princes Street Gardens (I’m guessing to avoid shutting down the tram network now).

As usual I took far too many photos (these are just a few), but hey, it’s a wonderful occassion and it marks the real beginning of summer and the the festival season here, and I got to watch it all with a dear chum, which always makes these things better.

The weather forecast predicted showers, but we got lucky, it stayed dry and at some points the sun even came out as if to admire the colours and costumes and smiles.

As ever there were some fabulous costumes, colours, music and smiles from all around the world.

Carnival time

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Joe

Edinburgh is moving into the main part of its busy festival season – the Science Festival has been in April, the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June, July sees the Jazz and Blues Festival, while the start of August gives us the Fringe and International Festival, and later in August the Art Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Busy, busy, busy…. Sadly the days when we used to get the Fringe Cavalcade parade seems to have vanished into history, but in recent years the Jazz and Blues Fest has kicked off with a colourful Carnival which makes up for that:

After the parade, many of the Carnival performers headed down into Princes Street Gardens, some to have a rest, others decided to put on some more performances for the following crowds, really nice atmosphere:

Some were more ready to just sit down and all check their phones!

Meanwhile this dancer seemed just so full of joy at performing in the park on a wee makeshift stage for the crowds, wonderful smile on her face as she danced:

Carnival

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Joe

The Fringe – the world’s biggest arts festival – and the main Edinburgh Festival and Edinburgh Book Festival start in August, but we’re currently already in the Jazz and Blues Festival, which kicked off last weekend with with a carnival style parade along a packed Princes Street on a very hot day, then down into Princes Street Gardens afterwards where some performers put on shows in the Ross Theatre (open air theatre in the gardens, right below Castle Rock) and others did little bits on the parkland around the theatre too.