Edinburgh Festival Blues - and other colours

Boxing Day vibes in my little city today.

Every August Edinburgh hosts the world’s biggest arts festival. And today it’s over, our spot at the heart of the creative world gone for another year.

But all that fizzing creativity leaves its mark. Noise, crowds, talent, belly laughs, drama, film, books, visual art, big ideas.

And colours! Edinburgh is strikingly lovely, in its muted Northern European way. But in August the city is the colours of the circus, thronging with glorious pop-up bars and tents, multitudes of bright posters, sequinned acrobats and street performers. The trees are festooned with jewel coloured lights.

So I think next year I’ll produce a festival edition of this Edinburgh print. With the ink outlines coloured in deep greens and blues, contrasting with the splashes of scarlet and Big-Top yellow.

Or maybe a new map, showing key venues? (So many! From concert halls to tiny back-rooms and basements.) Perhaps naming just a few of the great actors and comics who made their big break here. The shows that hit stage in Edinburgh first, like Fleabag, The Flight of The Conchords, The Mighty Boosh, The League of Gentlemen, Baby Reindeer…

Right, some research to be done.

Jenny Proudfoot

25 August 2025

My Edinburgh Old Town map. See shop for details.