Here are some of the highlights that I reckon I will be thinking about long after the thousands of performers who have been appearing on hundreds of stages over the last few weeks pack up and leave.

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La Clique

It was a hot and sweaty night when I arrived in St Andrew Square for my earliest ever Fringe show in late July 23 – a full week before most venues started their preview programmes.

It had been nine long years since the Famous Spiegeltent last graced the garden with its presence, but by the end of the night it felt as if it had never been away.

No show quite encapsulates the magic of the Fringe like La Clique – the cabaret show that has travelled the world since it was launched in Edinburgh 21 years ago. No show packs as breathtaking entertainment, eye-opening acrobatics, marvellous mischief and downright naughtiness into its running time.

Hamish Hawk paid tribute to Ivor Cutler at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. (Image: Chris BOOTH)

Hamish Hawk

The book festival Spiegeltent is normally a good contender to serve something special in August and so it proved this month.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that Hamish Hawk’s special commission, to pay homage to the much-loved poets, songwriter and “humorist” Ivor Cutler was as good as anything I’ve experienced at the festivals over the years.

Hawk’s long-time devoted to the life and work of Cutler shone through as he combined his own talent, stories and personality with Cutler’s unique way with words. His post-show talk with broadcaster Nicola Meighan rounded off a perfect night.

Scottish Ballet’s new production Mary, Queen of Scots premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Mary, Queen of Scots

One of the first shows in my diary for the month was the premiere of Scottish Ballet’s production – Mary, Queen of Scots.

My tickets were booked so long ago I’d forgotten that I’d booked front row seats of the Festival Theatre stalls for a mid-August Saturday night treat.

What I didn’t realise until we took our seats was that they overlooked the orchestra pit – leading to an unforgettable experience watching both the company’s orchestras and its dancers bring the new exploration of the relationship between the 16th century English and Scottish monarchs.

The new Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough brought the Edinburgh Film Festival to a close. (Image: Chris McCluskie | LS Productions)

Irvine Welsh

The author book-ended my month with launch events for his latest Trainspotting sequel Men In Love.

But it was the launch of a new documentary about the writer that made the closing gala of the Edinburgh International Film Festival the main event in town.

The atmosphere at the Cameo was electric before, during and after the first screening, with the crowd thronging the foyer sounding even more up-for-it, with Welsh himself DJ-ing at the Central Hall down the road to bring the film festival curtain down for another year.

Sandy Grierson and Brian Cox starred as Fred Goodwin and Adam Smith in Make It Happen.Make It Happen

The opening night of the National Theatre of Scotland’s much-anticipated new play on the rise and fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland was the undoubted hot ticket of the opening weekend.

After packing them in at the Festival Theatre for a week was almost certainly the most seen piece of theatre in the city this month and the show which seems to have divided opinion more than any.

For me, the show up to all of its promise, with writer James Graham shining an uncomfortable light on Establishment Edinburgh, Sandy Grierson calculating and chilling as Fred Goodwin, and Brian Cox camping up it as the ghost of Adam Smith.

Blue Rose Code

As almost 70,000 Oasis fans awaited to greet the Gallagher brothers on stage at Murrayfield, I was walking through the grounds of a church overlooking Leith Links for a much more intimate affair.

Putting your own show on in the Fringe is a risky business for any performer, never mind a singer-songwriter competing with the Oasis reunion shows.

But Ross Wilson, the Edinburgh-born singer who plays under the name Blue Rose Code with a revolving cast of musicians, has his own devoted following in the city, ensuring a series of sell-out shows at St James Church, and inspiring a free family-friendly matinee show.

At the end of a long week at the festivals, his show with guitarist Lyle Watt and singer Beth Malcolm was nothing short of sublime.

Comedy at the Citadel

Leith may be less than 20 minutes away from the city by tram, but it feels like a world away after from the packed city centre streets.

Many Leithers will tell you that’s the way they like it, but that didn’t stop them packing ut the Citadel Youth Centre for its first ever comedy night.

It was so full when I arrived that I had little option but to brave the front row, but it was the perfect place for a magical and much-needed benefit night for the Citadel, rounded off by surprise headliners Nish Kumar and Liam Withnail.

Tattoo finale

Of the many new innovations introduced to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo over the last decade or so, its celebration of Scotland’s modern-day traditional music scene is perhaps the most meaningful.

The inclusion of songs by Runrig, Tide Lines and Skerryvore in a show which reaches an audience of 220,000 at Edinburgh Castle esplanade and an estimated 100 million TV viewers around the world has helped transform the finale of the event.

New creative director Alan Lane has continued to honour Scotland’s trad music stars in his debut show this month, with songs from Skipinnish and Karine Polwart providing the stirring soundtrack as darkness falls on the city and the event reaches its climax.

Daniel Kitson

There are not too many comics could get away with turning up in Edinburgh without much of a show to perform.

As his devoted audiences know, Daniel Kitson is absolutely one of them.

Originally intended to be work-in-progress performances ahead of the launch of a new show in the autumn that has been postponed, Kitson decided to go ahead with run at the Stand Comedy Club anyway.

He may have warned fans in advance that his Fringe show was “likely to be, almost insultingly, shambolic” but that has not stopped them turning out in their droves, even at the ridiculously early start time of 10am.

Chris Brookmyre

There were genuine gasps of excitement at the book festival when Chris Brookmyre revealed he would be reviving his most popular character to mark the 30th anniversary of his first appearance.

Brookmyre stepped into the shoes of investigative journalist Jack Parlabane to read an extract from Quite Ugly One Evening. His character is at the heart of a “zeitgeisty locked room mystery” which sees Parlabane trapped in a rom with a dead body covered in his blood aboard a cruise liner hosting a convention celebrating a “contentious” 1960s TV series.

To add to the intrigue, Brookmyre has revealed that the inspiration for the story came when he was invited to join a floating literary festival on board the Queen Mary 2.

And a few things to forget…

Storm Floris

I’m not sure I was aware of the prospect of Storm Floris on the horizon as I basked in the sunshine in Princes Street Gardens to watch Dougie MacLean lead a mass rendition of Caledonia at the Edinburgh International Festival’s Big Singalong event.

By the end of the evening, the following night’s Tattoo performance had been called off, the Famous Spiegeltent had pulled the plug on a day’s worth of shows and other outdoor venues were battening down the hatches. The disruption might not have been as bad as many had feared, but the festivals will be hoping and praying storms of that scale do not become an annual fixture in August.

Cancelled

I’ve written enough stories about cancel culture and censorship to last a lifetime over the last few weeks, as festivals and venues grappled with protests, debates and social media firestorms. The only cancellation to cause me any kind of inconvenience was of a different kind, on a rare afternoon off in August.

There cannot be a worse feeling for performers than having to pull the plug on a show due to technical difficulties, particularly when Fringe venues have back-to-back shows scheduled in. But to see the show you missed – in this case Ohio, which was brought to Edinburgh by the American indie-folk duo The Bengsons – go on to win one of the biggest awards at the Fringe was a bit of a blow.

Brian Cox fails to credit The Herald

I would love to know whether actor Brian Cox was the most written-up festival star this month, or whether he was edged out by former First Minister and book festival favourite Nicola Sturgeon.

I ended up with a couple of scoops when he went on a rant about the “chaos” of Edinburgh’s festivals and called for a rethink of how they are organised.

I took the opportunity to ask him for a few more thoughts and why his new film Glenrothan, his directorial debut for the screen, was absent from the film festival when he was in town.

Cox mentioned his less-than-glowing thoughts about the film festival during a subsequent book festival appearance, but instead of crediting The Herald article, mentioned one of the many newspapers which followed it up. 

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