get a sweet tooth for Suttie

Ah, so sweet – like being in a children’s sweet shop. You could pick and choose your favourite jokes and gags and get through the whole show that way. But it was much better than that I assure you.

Isy Suttie, famed for her appearances as Dobbie in Channel 4’s Peep Show, has a steam roller of a delivery which suits the material very well. It draws upon childhood memories and following your dreams – the latter being a very catchy song because the sing-a-long takes place.

It’s an open and “honest” account with a real mountain of thought which is plied with a feeling of irony, leaving you feeling both nostalgic and warm and gooey like the inside of a bubbaloo – isn’t that nice!

Yes, Suttie is incredibly like-able with smiles, giggles and snorts throughout, if that’s your sort of thing. The show takes a sketch form rather than a journey but the theme is strong and pulls it all together.

At times, the characters felt forced but the playfulness makes it more justified and the genius songs accompany very well. Melody’s’ song about following your heart is a particular highlight; it’s over the top and dry, much like the rest of the show.

Suttie screams incredible presence and her audience connection makes her the adorable child she tells the stories of. Although, in places, it was bordering on the cliché, I feel her experience will shine through and certainly make her one to watch for the future.

many hands make lights work

It’s all going. Everything‘s kicking off. The trucks have arrived and been unloaded and there’s still more to come. Plenty of bodies are grinding away getting the prep work for the venues done. It’s not quite full swing just yet, as the mass of workforce don’t arrive until Saturday but it’s certainly going.

In my last post, I posed the question about why the Edinburgh festival has become what it has become. The world’s largest arts festival doesn’t just pop up in a few years – Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know! Year after year, the staff, companies and punters (in that order) all trek up to bonnie Scotland to basically have one big fat arts party and kick some cultural butt.

Speaking to some of my colleagues, I managed to get a real understanding of why some of the people came. For example, one person, among many I’m sure, could have taken approximately five days of site work and earned twice the money that you would in Edinburgh. Granted, everyone knows that the money isn’t great, and certainly not the reason why people come. However, the five days, basically corporate work, that he would have taken on wouldn’t have had anywhere near the amount of interest, spontaneity, diversity and shear passion for theatre and the arts as here. It’s incredibly fulfilling and by far beats most corporate work, no matter what the money.

Respectively, there are others who don’t have the skills and experience to be able to take a large money job at the moment. There are many students helping run the festival where the opportunity will, without a doubt, further their skills and experience for higher profile work later in their careers. I certainly have come to Edinburgh for this reason as one of many. I’ve been here less than two days and already learning a vast amount.

To give you an idea, 90% of the venues across the site’s are not purpose built theatres – far from it, in fact. They have to built from scratch to a highly professional specification. Everything from the lighting, sound, seating rig, stage, floor, drapes and fire exit signs are built in each venue which takes a great amount of effort. Take a look at the photos for some evidence of how they being to shape up. But as I said before, as you learn whilst doing this it, makes it a truly invaluable experience.

That’s the rough progress report so far and also a bit of reasoning behind how and why the festival takes place. As it continues and I digress over a beer with my colleagues and others, I’ll discover more of the many reasons why Edinburgh exists as it does.

what makes the festival so special?

I think it would be an appropriate time to fill in on the journey so far. When I say journey I mean that literally as I write this from my somewhat comfortable train chair. The landmark wheel in York seems like a justified halfway point with a fairly eventful journey – actually hardly at all, apart from the hen-do rabble of chirping chicks boarding at Doncaster making it a livelier affair (there’s goes the bubbly!). Last year’s journey didn’t have the luxury of Wi-Fi, thus showing the importance of this route from the hub of London to arguably centre point of Scotland’s urban landscape.

At this point, I haven’t spotted any fellow potential Edfest –ites, –onians or –evians. I’m trying to work out what most other people have as the purpose for their journey. Not to be patronising that Edinburgh only functions for the festival – anything but. Although, naturally, the festival is the most popular time with the Scottish capital’s population doubling during August.

During the time so far, apart from compiling my networking for the festival’s coverage, I’ve had a flick through the Fringe brochure to see what I could spot for the potential must-sees (bit of an oxy-moron but oh well). I’m halfway through and have so far noted The Terrible Infants with their “new, extended version”, Mark Watson trying to fill a massive auditorium and Obong – Akwa-Cross-River Dance Company which I’m billing as the replacement for last year’s Tom Tom Club.

Don’t worry; I’ll compile the results of a more thorough examination some time later on, for you UFN readers to see.

For now, the journey is to be enjoyed and a question mulled over – what is it exactly about the Edinburgh festival that has made it grown into the world’s largest arts festival? Is it perhaps the size, layout and geographical location of the city? Or the number of suitable and potential venues to facilitate rapid growth? Or even the mix of tourist attractions to help bums on seats? Whatever it is, the specialty of it all has got me coming back for another year and I know there’s nothing else to beat it.