The 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins on the August 5th 2011 and runs until August 29th. The Edinburgh Fringe festival is famous throughout the world for innovation in plays, comedy and art forms. Many performers go on to great national and international success. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation throughout Edinburgh and you can contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.What can visitors expect from this years Fringe Festival with 41,689 performances of 2,542 shows in 258 venues spread across the famous Scottish Capital of Edinburgh. Serviced City Pads apartments can also be booked online.

Edinburgh Fringe 2011 is compelling and must see event, reflections and experiences of artists, producers and companies from all over the world, and 2011 promises to be the biggest year yet. Launching the programme, Kath M Mainland, Chief Executive of the Festival Fringe Society said: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is still the choice for perfromers, producers, venues, artists and creators to come and tell their story; we are proud that at the Fringe is still the place to bring your work, with opportunities to amaze, enthral and excite audiences from both far and away and close to home. Serviced City Pads reservations team can be contacted on 0844 335 8866.
The Edinburgh Festival offers the greatest and widest range of choice across the world for events and the whole world proceeds to visit in large numbers for its variety and range of artforms from comedy and theatre to dance, rock, opera and cabaret, an art form that is appearing for the first time in its own category. Serviced City Pads.Highlights of the programme include the 25th anniversary of legendary Fringe Institution Late n Live, award winning companies, performers and productions returning to the Fringe and site specific work aplenty. Fringe First Award winning National Theatre of Scotland return after 2010’s Beautiful Burnout with David Greig’s The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart in the bar of Ghillie Dhu and The Wheel at the Trasverse. 2010 Award winner Bryony Kimmings is back as part of the Arts Council England. Serviced City Pads supply from one and two bedroom apartments to large Penthouse which will make your Edinburgh trip even more enjoyable.

Scotlands famous Lung Ha’s collaboration with Swedish Company Unga Klara bringing where life and stories are told from the perspective of children, this show will truly be amazing and excitment is mounting with tickets selling very well indeed. In the venue the Lounge room the actors turn the stage into your own home, Australian artists Stuart Bowden and Wil Greenway will charm your guests with a suitcase and more than a story or two.

The Serviced City Pads blog often tries to draw attention to cultural events that are under the radar – recent examples of this for Edinburgh include the Swamp Soccer World Championship and the Dead by Dawn horror film festival. However, this blog is devoted to an event that is probably not in any danger of being overlooked!

The award winning stage show We Will Rock You is coming to Edinburgh at the end of 2011. The Ben Elton penned epic will be performed at the Edinburgh Playhouse from the 29th November 2011 to the 7th January 2012. The show is set in a dystopian future where culture has become homogenized and life is bleak and dull. The people are looking for someone to save them – will it be the mysterious Galileo? Featuring some of Queen’s greatest songs (including “I Want to Break Free,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and “Radio Gaga”) We Will Rock You is sure to be an amazing evening, particularly for those who are already well acquainted with the hits of one of the greatest bands that Britain has ever produced.

If you are looking to visit Edinburgh at the end of this year, whether to see the show, or just to see Edinburgh itself, you could always book a serviced apartment for your visit. Serviced apartments are becoming a more and more popular option for people travelling around the UK, whether they are families, groups of friends, or business travellers. At Serviced City Pads, we have a wide range of serviced apartments available through our apartment operators. There are studio or 1 bedroom apartments, ideal for couples or single travellers. Alternatively, there are 3 or even 4 bedroom apartments that can accommodate large groups of people also available. You can see for yourself the options available in Edinburgh by clicking here.

If you’re going to visit Edinburgh, why not contact Serviced City Pads and a member of our reservations team will be happy to see what options are available for you through our apartment operators? You can call us on 0844-335-8866 or enquire through our website.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe will be taking place from the 5th to the 29th August this year, and if you will be attending the event and haven’t yet sorted out somewhere to stay then you should get in touch with us here at Serviced City Pads. It’s never too soon to book for the  Edinburgh Fringe, as demand for accommodation is always extremely high and if you leave it too late you risk being left empty-handed.
A quick visit to our website will let you see the wide range of serviced apartments that we have available through our apartment operators. Whether you are travelling alone or in a large group there are a number of options that are available – an increasing number of which can now be booked online.
For one or two people, we have a number of small apartments, for example the Ocean Apartments. These one bedroom apartments are comfortable and spacious, with a living and dining area and kitchen. There are also two bedroom apartments available at Ocean Apartments – these can sleep up to 4 or 6 people.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Edinburgh apartments that can accommodate large groups such as the Playhouse and Royal Mile three bedroom apartments. These apartments can accommodate up to 8 people, perfect for a group of friends travelling to the Festival Fringe together.
The apartments on our site are in many different locations across Edinburgh – you can see exactly where by looking at the googlemaps provided with each listing. Most are in great locations for access to the city centre and the restaurants and bars.
If you like the look of any of these apartments, we recommend that you contact us as soon as possible. Our reservations team can provide you with a number of options for your stay – just tell us what you need and we can do the hard work for you. Booking somewhere for the Festival Fringe needn’t be a hassle!

Serviced City Pads book serviced apartments within Edinburgh, please contact the serviced apartment team on 0844 335 8866.
Edinburgh is promising sparkle galore today with the unveiling of spectacular Christmas plans for the city centre, backed by the Capitals biggest winter marketing drive ever.

Edinburgh is the best city in Britain for a Christmas break. Scotlands Capital is stunningly beautiful for the rest of the year too but at Christmas, it becomes truly magical experience, the heart of Edinburghs winter festival and here’s why.

Christmas shopping, winter family fun and lots of other activities take place in a sparkling Edinburgh city centre. Hardly any other city on the world has the ability to bring excellent shopping and the magic of Christmas so close together, and at the centre of Edinburghs capital as well. Events and festive Christmas celebrations take place throughout the city from Princess Street itself with the Gardens, the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle in the Old Town to George Street in the New Town.

The winter festival in Edinburgh lasts for more than a month, starting with the Christmas lights switch on in late November, followed by Christmas time in fairytale-like Edinburgh, and finally, finishing off with the Hogmanay 4-day long celebrations.Serviced City Pads.

There’s no doubt  that the best thing about Christmas in Edinburgh is the Winter Wonderland, a mix of fairground rides, Ferris Wheel, outdoor Ice Rink, hot food stands, Christmas Fair and traditional German Christmas market. These are still open for visitors for nearly 4 weeks.

Other Christmas events include the Santa Run, Edinburgh’s attempt at breaking the record for the largest gathering of Santas, the Reindeer Gardens in West Princess Street Gardens and carol concerts theoughout Scotlands Capital. Serviced City Pads.
Our Iconic Torchlight procession remains the favourite with Hogmanay festisval goers of all ages. The event created a dramatic ‘river of fire’ throught the city, form the Royal Mile to Carlton Hill.

The procession, which has been a record crowd of around 25,000 in attendance, was led off from the City Chambers by the Up Helly Aa Vikings and massed pipes and drums. A trail was blazed through the centre of Edinburgh, down the Mound, along Princess Street and into Waterloo Place on its way to Carlton Hill. The culmination of the process on Carlton Hill saw lighting of fire scultures along with music and other performers.

The evening concluded with a sensational fireworks display that wowed the crowd and sent everyone on their way for the remaining Hogmanay festivities to come.

Our brand new spectacular event, Boogie wonderland is set to be the funkiest gig in town and will give partygoers the perfect chance to dust off those platforms and get dressed up to the nines. A full-on tribute to the seventies hosted by the boogieman himself, organisers are calling for ticket holders to dig out those shiny catsuits, don those flairs and chessy moustaches and groove under the glitter ball to a truly Top opf the Pops, seventies soundtrack featuring a whole cast of retro tribute bands. Serviced City Pads supply Serviced Apartments throughout Edinburgh, please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.

Another Someone – Bedlam Theatre until Saturday August 28, 2010

If your after something young and refreshing, unpretentious and uplifting, go and see this show. Even though it probably defies most catergorisations – being qualifiable as either a contemporary dance with words or a musical with storytelling – this little show about happiness could probably pass for a piece of easy audience therapy too. Serviced City Pads.

The fact that it doesn’t try too hard to be older or clever than it is probably lets this show get away with ocaasional narrative flaws. And they make these work by flaunting them. Becky Wilkie’s thorughly enchanting music make the whole thing bind seamlessly together and she appears in the triple role fo a composer, musician and narrator. RashDash founders Helen Goalen and Abbi Greenland, as well as their new member Marc Graham, are all talented singers and dancers too, making it feel as though this quartet redefines the notion of a triple-threat. Not only that, but they genuinely threaten to break new ground and bring a whole new brand of music theatre – if not an album or two as well. So do go and see them while they are such amazing value for money. Happiness guaranteed.

Speechless – Traverse Theatre until Sunday August 29, 2010

Based on facts, this is the story of twin sisters who refused to speak, preferring to communicate with each other as growing olders forces then ever deeper into comfort of their secret world.Serviced City Pads short stay serviced apartment accommodation.
Increasingly difficult, they are transferred from secondary to special school as family and experts remain baffled. Otherwise intelligent, articulate and witty, the twin belong to a normal family with mother, father and three siblings. Except not so normal, since they are immigrants from the Carribean living on an RAF base in the UK where thay are the only black family. And, we should remember, this is the early eighties when society in Britain was only just begginning to confront the word ‘racism’. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartments in Edinburgh.
TV plays a large role in punctuating the sisters lives, on a daily basis watching Dallas or Top of the Pops with their supper, or markingthe passing of the years with Charles and Diana’s wedding and the Brixton Riots. Meanwhile the people around them attempt to save th twins from silence. Their mother Gloria (Anita Reynolds, admiringly convincing despite being too young for the role) alternately pleads and cajoles, as does special scholl teacher Cathy (Emma Handy), while schoolmate Kennedy (Alex Waldmann) offers a potential lifeline through his own troubled adolescence.

As June, Demi Oyediran brings a spark of hope to the more outgoing sister who might just escape, while Natasha Gordon sustains a growing unease as the more manipulative Jennifer. Theirs is a truly remarkable, disturbing joint performance that expertly makes the twins personalities distinct yet leaves no doubt that they are inseparably intertwined.Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation through Edinburgh, please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866

Check out the following acts in Edinburgh over the next 4 weeks at the Fringe Festival. The Edinburgh Festival brings acts from all over the world to showcase their talents. The hosting venues are located throughout the city and can be accessed either with a short walk ot bus ride to the venue. There are over 2,000 acts performing throughout the month of August and the first week in September, here are some reviews of current acts at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.Serviced City Pads.

Stuart Goldsmith – The Reasonable Man

Despite being from Leamington Spa, Stuart has spent his whole life desperately trying to be interesting. It sort of worked. This is a story of what happened when he tried to be himself instead…A white knuckle, high-octane meander through the worlds of sex, circus and subculture. A glorious stand-up debut from a very nice young man with no tattos. ‘Marries pitch perfect audience repartee with cleverley woven tales of the evryday’ (Independent); ‘Inspired’ (Sunday Times); Every nuance carefully calculated for maximum impact’ (Chortle.co.uk); ‘Hilarious’ (Guardian).

The Blue Lady Sings

The unexpected face of the blues is Unveiled in a Unique Musical Cabaret at the Edinburgh Fringe Free Fringe this August.
In the Blue Lady Sings, celebrated artiste Tricity Vogue sings her way off the wall anf into your heart as she brings kitsch portrait to life with her own band of witty and unusual Blues.Serviced City Pads short stay apartments.

Prepare to be serenaded, danced with, shot at, or all three, as the darling of London’s Cabaret demi-mode makes her dazzling and enchanting Edinburgh debut in the free fringe’s new dedicated cabaret venue Maggie’s Chamber at Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters throughout August.

The Blue Lady Sings is written and performed by Tricity Vogue, with music produced by Nick Trepka, and costumes by Stephane St Jaymes and Salvatore Forino. Serviced City Pads.

Tricity Vogue – she of the twinkle eye, swoonsome voice and cheeky ukulele – brings Tretchikoff’s ‘Chinese Girl’ to life in this funny and pleasingly sentimental show. She’s living the blues, all right, with a variety of tourch songs, pop and rock standards on a blue theme, plus a bit of comedy and storytelling’ (Time Out London).

New Art Club – Big Bag of Boom

Back with their genre-defining stand-up dance, Roden and Shenton, one of the most original acts in comedy, bring together the most explosive moments from a decade of award-winning shows. The clever tricks, hilarious set pieces and brilliant dances that make up their unique world get teased out of their original holes and smashed together into this combustible new show. ‘A slick, warmly delivered, bloody funny slice of modern dance-meets-comedy fun’ (List); Roden and Shenton caper gleefully along dividing line between lunacy and genius’ (Herald); ‘Downright funny’ (New York Times). Serviced City Pads.

The Edinburgh Festival has started and here are some of the best shows to see. Serviced City Pads supply serviced apartment accommodation throughout Edinburgh please contact the reservations team on 0844 335 8866.

Our Share of Tomorrow

A girl arrives on a quay looking for the man that loved her mother 15 years ago and never stopped waiting. Her mother is dead and she is there to tell him that he is her father. Intriguingly, she is accompanied by a recently befriended and much older soldier, who aggressively protects her welfare.

What unfolds is a resonant, melancholic exploration of love and grief, that shines not so much in the twists of the plot itself – this is not about ‘what happens next’ – but rather in the details of the characters’ interaction. Artful, intuitive performances convey the nuances of angst and affection with geniune depth and manage to pick out the sentiment behind dialogue that, at times, might otherwise seem rather obscure.

Finely tuned without becoming stilted, this production by Real Circumstance is a touching and sincere portrait of emotional landscapes and the shifting, complex identities of girl and woman, father and daughter, friend and lover.Fully realised characters provide insight into a narrative that could have floundered in less skilled hands and deliver to the stage a polished, streamlined piece of theatre.

Jarred Christmas – Personal set from personable stand-up

With a name like Christmas, it’s a no-brainer that this Kiwi had grown up defending himself. And defend himself he does, about his pechant for dance, Michael Jackson fandom and less than svelte physique. The jokes came quickly and easily, and Christmas mix of the off  hand comment and the tightly crafted joke is a hilarious combination. He struts his sweaty stuff with suprising dexterity when lampooning his dance lessons, but late comers beware:he will unshamedly bare his chest at you.Serviced City Pads supply short and long stay serviced apartments.Christmas is a likeable guy with a quick mind and talent for easy but never obvious jokes, and the audience laughed along as he shared his temptation at the birth certificate registrars office and roared at his recollection of a brief brush with infamy from an appearance on Big Brothers Big Mouth. His comedy isn’t observational, but personal, and the laughs come from familiarity with the situations he describes, though not everyone is a comedian struggling to fill out government forms. Christmas is robustly funny, his delivery confident and his show not to be missed.

Bridget Christine – Dabbling around the unhinged fringes of stand-up.

Bridget Christine openly admits that her act may not be the most commercially viable around. But you can’t help but feel the Fringe would be a bit more interesting of other performers were willing to forsake financial security and the welfare of the toddler to open a stand-up show dressed as an ant with goggles. For a piece of performance theatre, it not only provides an interesting, angered take on public and critical perceptions of the role of women in comedy, bit also allows us to laugh at ant-based puns.Serviced City Pads.

As a comedy tactic, it’s triumphant. Her less etymological material isn’t quite so certain in it’s brilliance, but the stories are as dark, farcical and referential as you’s expect from anyone who spends enough time Stewart Lee. Especially satisfying are the references to the couples cat, Boo Boo, which blur the lines of daydream and reality, as an audience begins to question this womans sanity. It’s how a proper fringe show should be. Serviced City Pads supply short and long stay serviced apartments.

Want to have the fun but on half the funds? For summer festival savings there’s a host of handy ways to see more shows for less. And don’t forget there are 100s of free shows and events at the festivals, including over 85% of the exhibitions in the Edinburgh Art Festival! If you like a good bargain then you’ll love out tips for getting the best value out of your festival experience. Some of the best festival moments are free so free your time and make the most of them. Welcome to the cheap seats. Serviced City Pads supply short stay serviced apartment accommodation.

Festival Previews – Early birds are rewarded by getting reduced priced tickets prior to the shows officially opened. Savings for these dry run rehersals are great so plan an early August arrival and enjoy preview prices.

2 for 1 tickets – The Fringe is awash with half-price offers while other festivals often do giveaways through media partners in the form of cut out coupons in the newspapers. The biggest of these is the Fringe 2 for 1 weekend, where a huge chunk of the programme is discounted on the first Sunday and Monday of the festival. Many venues also list 2 for 1 shows at the venue box office throughout the Festival.

Find the freebies – The only thing better than perfect is a free show. For the fantastic festival experience, seek out the freebies on Edinburgh Fringe Official Website highlighted Events page or by visiting each individual festival website to find out about any free events in the programme. Serviced Apartment Accommodation through Serviced City Pads.Barter or Bust – Fringe performers who are promoting their show with flyers on the High Street may offer you free tickets for performances at the start of the Festival (especially if they have an important reviewer coming to their show, and they want there to be a big audience!) Please contact the Serviced City Pads reservations team on 0844 335 8866 for short stay accommodation.
Start Working – If your a festival fanatic and want to see the inner workings, you could take a job or volunter at a venue. Contact venues directly to find out what’s on offer. As well as the thrill of being part of the action you get to see all the action – for free.

Go Online – For giveaway goodies, sync up with social networking. Most of the festivals and venues have their own blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter updates. These are often used for ticket and giveaways or discounted offers so poke, follow and tweet your way to cheaper festival fun.

Soak it up – While away the hours just soaking up the festival atmosphere. Save your Sunday afternoon on the August 9th for Holyrood Park, to catch the colour and spectacle of the Festival Cavalcade.

Hang out at the festival venues, chat to performers and enjoy watching the world go by. Whole days can disappear at places like The Pleasance Courtyard, Underbelly Pasture and Assembly’s Lane Bar. See that day out with a bang and make a date for the Saturday night fireworks displays of the tattoo. Pick your own vantage point and get your mates together for the midnight showpiece above Edinburgh Castle. Serviced City Pads.

The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from August 13 until Sept 5. By the invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music (especially classical music), theatre, opera and dance from around the world to perform. Contact Serviced City Pads to book an apartment 0844 335 8866.
The first International Festival (and the first festival of the Fringe, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, although it wasn’t known until much later took place in 1947, in the wake of the Second World War, with the optimistic remit ‘to provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit, and enrich the cultural life of Scotland, Britain and Europe. The founders of the Festival included Rudolph Bing (then the General Manager of Glyndebourne Opera Festival), Henry Harvey Wood Head of the British Council in Scotland, Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh. The festivals have taken place every August since. Serviced City Pads.

Top acts at the 2010 Edinburgh International Festival.

The voices of the new world return to the old in this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.

Montezuma

Described as the little-known operatic gem, Montezuma was written by a German Composer Carl Heinrich Graun in 1755 and chronicled the tragic, one-sided and bloody confrontation between Spanish conquistadors and the Aztec empire led by Montezuma 200 years before. The new production, set on the island that would become the future of Mexico City, with several Mexican singers, captures the Festival’s theme of the old world and new, in a year when Mexico celebrates the 200th anniversary of its warof independence from Spain.

Teatro Cinema

A radical theatre company from Chile which blends cinema and live performance so closely it is hard to distinguish live actors from characters on screen, Teatro Cinema brings two productions to the Kings Theatre. Sin Sangre, Without Blood, tells the story of brutal slaying by three armed men, centred on the woman who witnessed the murder of her father and mother. The man who Fed Butterflies is a new co-production with the EIF, devised around the story of a man exploring the a forgotten ritual of the souls of dead warriors released in the hatching of butterflies. Serviced City Pads supply short stay apartments in Edinburgh.

Bliss

Opera Australia production of Peter Careys novel, centred on a Brisbane advertising executive who wakes from a heart-stopping near-death experience in his own particular brand of hell, comes to Edinburgh fresh from its Australian premiere. Nine years in the making, it has won strong reviews for the prize-winning composer Brett Dean and features star Australian baritone Peter Coleman-Wright.  Please contact Serviced City Pads on 0844 335 8866.Caledonia

Caledonia marks the world premiere of a major new project by the National Theatre of Scotland, chronicling the country’s disastrous colonial foray into Panama. The huge costs of the tragically unept Darien venture, devised by adventurer William Paterson, were blamed for forcing Scotland into a union with England. Critics will be watching carefully to see if the production – written by satirist Alistair Beaton, and directed by Anthony Neilon, whose achievements include Festival hit The Wonderful World of Disassocia – lives up to it’s promise and ambition. Serviced City Pads

The Edinburgh annual Fringe Festival is the world’s largest arts festival and runs from the 6th – 30th August in 2010. The festival has a little something for everyone from comedy, music, opera, dance to exhibitions and even children’s shows. The festival was established over 60 years ago as an alternative to the already established Edinburgh International festival. Some theatre groups thought that they could take advantage of the expected crowds for the International festival to showcase their own, experimental, more alternative theatre. Nowadays the Fringe’s main element is the ever popular growing comedy shows which last year made up around 35% of the overall festival with theatre close behind at around 28% of the programmed shows. The Fringe became popular and drew a different type of performer and crowd with its constitution policy that no shows would be vetted or censored. Last year’s statistics showed that it was the largest ever with over 1.8 Million tickets sold throughout the entire festival.

With that amount of people and more expected for the 2010 Festival you would be wise to start thinking about accommodation in Edinburgh if you are going to attend. When it comes to accommodation then look no further than Serviced Apartments as an alternative to a hotel. Having spent long days walking up and down the royal mile and attending numerous shows then what better way than to come back to your serviced apartment to relax in the large living room or even cook yourself a lovely meal in the fully equipped kitchen and enjoy it on the fully furnished dining room. Why sit at the end of your bed in a hotel or have to eat out every night while at the festival? A serviced apartment offers all the luxury of a hotel with all the added comforts of home.

At Serviced City Pads we have numerous Serviced apartments all around Edinburgh City Centre and even have some on the outskirts in case the crowds are getting to you a little bit. All of our serviced apartments come with fully clothed and furnished bedrooms, fully fitted bathrooms with towels provided, fully fitted kitchen with all crockery and utensils and a fully furnished open plan living/dining room with TV, Sofas, Dining table, etc. We have apartments that can sleep between 2 guests and 9 guests and our apartments range from standard to luxury and some can even offer their own in-house chef.

When you’re staying away for a few days you need somewhere where you can unwind and relax and that’s something that you can’t get from a hotel room. In a serviced apartment you have all the mod cons and you can relax, sit back and put your feet up in front of the TV if the Festival has tired you out. The apartments can also help to save money as they are all self catering with fully fitted kitchens so you can cook all your meals rather than hitting the burger vans every day or queuing up to get into a restaurant every night.