6 September 1947: The first festival takes place in Edinburgh. It was founded after the Second World War to provide ‘a platform for the flowering of the human spirit.’
13 September 1947: Neville Cardus reviews Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic in Schubert and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. “Music moved visibly on his face,” he writes of conductor Bruno Walter.
14 May 1961: English satire advances in to the 60s: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett in “Beyond the Fringe.”
11 August 1996: The past 50 years: A selection of memorable moments from half a century of the Edinburgh festival as seen by Observer critics.
23 August 1999: Andy Beckett reports on stand-up comedy at the festival and reviews The League Against Tedium.
25 August 1999: Giselle, first performed in 1982 and now revived for the Edinburgh festival, was a delightful opener for a week-long retrospective of Mats Ek’s work.
8 August 2000: Michael Billington reports from the Traverse on three plays exploring what happens when worlds collide.
14 August 2001: Doris Lessing tells feminists to lay off men, the new silent victims in the sex war.
20 August 2016: Edinburgh fringe Chilcot recital ends after 284 hours and 45 minutes.
Club Cumming, dystopias and talking dolphins: Edinburgh festival 2016 shows - picture gallery
