A kaleidoscope of colour as artists arrive for Edinburgh Festival

THOUSANDS of performers have begun arriving in Edinburgh ahead of the start of the Fringe Festival on Friday - including these morph-suited dancers.
Morph-suited performers David Labanca and Gianmarco Pozzoli of Discoteque Machine in a giant  kaleidoscope
Picture: PA WIREMorph-suited performers David Labanca and Gianmarco Pozzoli of Discoteque Machine in a giant  kaleidoscope
Picture: PA WIRE
Morph-suited performers David Labanca and Gianmarco Pozzoli of Discoteque Machine in a giant kaleidoscope Picture: PA WIRE

Italian dance company Discoteque Machine will being “joy and freedom to people cursed by shyness” in its show, which runs at Zoo Southside from Friday until August 31.

This year’s Fringe will see more than 50,000 performances of 3,314 shows from 49 countries in 313 venues across Scottish capital.

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Today people began flying into Edinburgh Airport for the festival, which was the launch pad for stars including John Cleese, Jude Law, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz, Sam Mendes and Graham Norton.

The airport’s director of communications and chair of Marketing Edinburgh, Gordon Roberston said: “It’s incredibly exciting to see artists and audiences begin to arrive at Edinburgh Airport from all around the world for the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“Edinburgh truly is the world’s leading festival city and I’ve no doubt that from the moment the customers collect their Fringe tickets from the Edinburgh Airport ticket collection point, right through to when they depart, many unforgettable and special memories will have been created.”

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe began back in 1947, as the Edinburgh International Festival, a post-war initiative to bring people together through culture.

Eight companies were unable to perform as a part of the curated International Festival programme, but decided the show must go on - and formed the Fringe.