Falling in Love with Fireworks (Edinburgh International Festival in general)

Member Name: katestuartuk

Product:	Edinburgh International Festival in general
Date:	13/09/06 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing to watch, beautiful music, great atmosphere!

Disadvantages: Bit chilly, take an extra sweater!

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert

Sunday 3rd September 2006.

Princes Street.

When I was about 12 years old, on a voyage from Newcastle to The Far North (Aberlour) of Wild and Wonderful Scotland, in an old red cortina, shoe-horned between my four other siblings and a lot of luggage, we passed through Edinburgh mid-Fringe. It was quite by accident – Dad missed the turn off for the ring road, and so instead of flying round the leafy outskirts of Auld Reekie, we got Trapped, right in the centre of town, behind a parade float exploding with people all dressed to the nines with flowery, floaty paraphernalia, large hats, and even larger voices!

My lasting memory is of the float people, all colourful up head of us, and Dad, swearing loudly (“Fiddlesticks! Hell’s Teeth! Good God!!!!”), while Mum passed him boiled sweets to sooth his temper and perhaps stem the flow of made-up swear words.
We never ventured through Edinburgh again, and though a frequent visitor to the Highlands, I was in my mid 20s’ before I got off the train at Edinburgh for the first time – not for the festival, but for the Monet Exhibition, which I drooled over before departing again for sunny Newcastle.

After all that, my great and huge confession is that I have never been to the Fringe Festival. So why on earth am I writing a review in this category? Well, let me tell all.

On Sunday, 3rd September this year, I boarded a train North, to meet my lovely gentleman friend in Edinburgh. He had booked a rather nice hotel for us, and we were to view the Fireworks over Edinburgh Castle that evening. The hotel was gorgeous, and I’ll review that separately, we had a lovely romantic meal at a very nice Chinese restraunt (again review will appear here shortly!) and then we headed down to Princes Street to find a good spot to watch the fireworks.

It was quite an amazing thing to be standing right in the middle of Princes street, no traffic as the whole road was closed, and completely surrounded on all sides by people from all over the world. Germans, Americans, Canadians, French, Italian, Australian, New Zealanders, the list goes on – as soon as you’d tuned in to one accent, there was another to contend with – it was fabulous – a real global community right there in the shadows of the Castle.

We arrived on Princes Street an hour before the fireworks were due to start, and although it was a little chilly (take and extra jumper if you’re going next year!), we were really glad we’d come out early, as the place filled up so fast – one minute the street was almost empty, the next it was heaving. People had camping chairs with them so they could sit down to watch and listen, and we thought that was a great idea – and certainly a good tip for next year! There must have been thousands of people there on the streets, in the gardens, all the way up to Calton Hill. I heard there were even some people who had climbed Arthur’s Seat to get a panoramic view!!

The orchestra for the evening were installed in Princes Street Gardens – The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Garry Walker as Conductor, and the music they were to play was Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet. How romantic we thought – one of our very first dates was to see a local youth production of Romeo and Juliet, and we were over the moon to be hearing Prokofiev played live, as if just for us!

The atmosphere was fantastic as the orchestra warmed up, and the 3 single tester fireworks were set off. The whole crowd erupted with glee, clapping and cheering in anticipation of what was to be an amazing show of lights.

At around 9pm, there was a loudspeaker announcement regarding health and safety, leaving the area at the end and where the first aiders could be found if needed. The conductor introduced the orchestra, and the fireworks and music began.

I have never, in my whole life, see fireworks like I did that night – the music was superb, and the sky exploded with light and colour in complete harmony with the tone and pace of the music – one of the slower, romantic pieces saw the sky fill with red love heart fireworks that made the crowd gasp at the perfection and simplicity of them. Every time a piece of music ended, you thought there was no way they could top that, it must be over, and every time, more fireworks, more music, more colour lighting up the sky and reflecting back from our amazed eyes. I spent the whole time gasping, my eyes wide with anticipation of the next explosion, and awe when it came, exceeding those expectations. It is an event that I think you must see to believe.

When the final burst of light came and went an hour later, and all the sparks had finished flying, the crowd began to move slowly back down Princes Street, and we made our way back to the hotel, high on the excitement of what we had seen and heard, and with the secret promise held on the breeze that we would be back again next year, and we would remember how beautiful this night had been for the rest of our lives.

Getting back to the hotel was a short walk with lots of other happy people, there was no trouble, no angry words, and everyone seemed in high spirits. Traffic was quite bad, lots of cars trying to get home, but the queues of traffic quickly subsided, and by the time we got back to the hotel, the streets were relatively quiet again.

In all, we had a beautiful evening, and can thoroughly recommend this event to anyone. You will have a lovely time too, we’re quite sure of that!

*****For information and bookings*****

www.eif.co.uk

+44 (0) 131 473 2000

Edinburgh International Festival
Hub Tickets
The Hub
Castlehill
Edinburgh
EH1 2NE

*****The Festival Fireworks event was free of charge*****

Thanks so much for reading, Kate x

Summary: ROMEO AND JULIET IN LIGHTS AND MUSIC