Another festival season draws to a close! While we’re all exhausted and looking forward to a chill September and the dawning of lovely Autumn, it’s time to have a look back and revel in all the amazing things that happened over the last month.

Edinburgh doesn’t just come to life, it goes a bit nuts for the month of August – and it’s so exciting to get stuck in with loads of amazing things to do, eat and see. It was lovely as ever to have family and friends come to visit and enjoy it for a few days at a time. The amount of creativity, graft and hope in the city is both overwhelming and inspiring, and I feel very lucky to be able to be a wee part of it.

I saw a whole bunch of things from musicals to comedy, dance to drama, circus to music, and things that are difficult to define. My favourite International Festival show was the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra playing Duke Ellington. We were sitting right at the back in restricted view seats and even still, it was a magical evening. I love hearing a live orchestra, and even though I wasn’t particularly familiar with the music in the programme, it was so amazing to hear their jazzy tunes. As well as the excellent orchestra, they also had guest performers come out for each song, and I think I heard the smoothest trumpet player ever; they made it sound like a different instrument!

My favourite from the Book Festival was Ella Risbridger’s Table Talk. The event took place in the gorgeous Elliott’s studio, which has a mirror mounted over the counter so you can see what they’re cooking. Ella and the team put together a tasty tomato tart snack that we all got to try, and she was talking about her new cookbook The Kitchen Book. I couldn’t help picking it up after because it was so nice to hear her talk about what all those recipes meant to her, the thought that went into putting the book together and also beautifully how ‘faff-free’ it aims to be. It was a lovely, chill event listening to two folks who love food chatting.

Then, amongst the thousands of Fringe shows I have 7 highlights! Two of which were mythological one-person shows that blew me away. The first was Penelope, in which she tells her side of the Trojan War story in a one-woman cabaret. It was funny and sharp; Grace McLean is such a captivating performer, and it was probably the best writing I saw at the festival. The second was Legendary – singer-songwriter Cheeyang Ng uses Chinese mythology, their memories and relationships with their family, and their queerness to understand their sense of purpose and belonging. The audience was included in the ritualistic songs, which made the space feel really intimate and connected. This is the show that moved me the most – I cried like a baby towards the end, along with most of the audience.

There were two shows that made me think a lot and led to really interesting conversations afterwards. Playback was about a Scottish boy called Euan Munro who became a famous YouTuber back in 2013 (at age 11). It started with a bunch of wonderfully cringy nostalgia and youthful excitement and ended with a really thoughtful consideration of what it means to be a public figure and how we should protect children and young people online. This is probably the show that surprised me the most. Euan’s a wee bit younger than me, but having grown up during the big vlogger boom of the 2010s, I could appreciate how enticing being a part of that world was, but as an adult, I can now reflect on how the early years of UGC internet were the total wild west.

The other was not for glory, in which a Highland dancer, a bagpiper and an Irish dancer talk about their childhoods competing in their respective fields, how the rigidity and traditionalism made them all resent their hobbies, and how they came back to loving their art form in adulthood without the pressure and culture that surrounds it. They poked fun at how silly some parts of the competitions can be, or how the traditional style can be tied up in misogyny and prejudice. The show was mostly a series of surreal vignettes; the celtic dance styles merged with contemporary dance, which was really cool and a bit disorientating. At the end, each of them spoke to us honestly about their experiences, and it was really lovely to connect on that human level. My sister grew up doing Highland dance competitions which I went along to, and I also competed in a different dance style so there was a lot there we could relate to. We also had a great chat about how refreshing it was to see something that’s properly Scottish but also creative and contemporary, rather than a repeat of the classics we mostly now perform for tourists.

Then of course, there are the shows that you could only see during the Fringe. My best silly show was Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, which was an absolute hoot! My friend and I smiled through the whole thing. It was as good as a parody can be – very funny, excellent singers, and the songs were bangers that got stuck in our heads. My favourite circus show was EXIT – a blend of acro-dance and circus, four performers hypnotically moved through a shifting world of revolving walls and floating doors. Rather than having lots of individual ‘tada!’ moments, the momentum built up gradually throughout the show, which I really liked. It was so meditative, playful, understated and impressive.

The most unique experience that I loved was going to the Sauna Theatre – yup, a big 80-person functioning hot sauna where shows were held with lighting and sound. This was a showcase of the Aufguss art form, which includes using different scents on the sauna heaters and wafting the air around the room with fans and hypnotic towel-spinning choreography. I love going to the sauna, so I totally loved enhancing that experience with these extra elements, though I would say you can’t really compare it to other theatre experiences. I saw two shows at the Sauna Theatre, and I think Mysteries of the Picts was my favourite. Two storytellers told us some facts about the history of saunas and what we know of our celtic ancestors’ relationships to them, and then two Aufguss masters playfully wafted us with the hot air, splashed us with water from branches and leaves, and enthralled us with their dancing. I would definitely love to do more Aufguss experiences in the future.

This festival in particular felt particularly busy – mostly because we re-opened a theatre just before it started! Seeing the King’s come back to life was a total joy, a lot of work and also so very special to be a part of. We also juggled DIY project deadlines, a busy month at work, recovering from illness, seeing friends, watching the solar eclipse and attempting to exercise, eat well and rest some of the time. A lot to juggle, but I guess that’s what happens when the circus is in town!