Edinburgh Festival Fringe: 26 photos looking back at the Fringe in the 1980s
With this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe fast approaching, we’ve taken a look back in our archives for photos of the annual event during the 1980s.
That decade saw many TV and comedy stars who went onto become household names appear in Edinburgh, selling their shows on the streets of the city like everyone else, including comedians Rowan Atkinson, Alexi Sayle and Jo Brand, musician Jools Holland and Scottish US TV show host Craig Ferguson.
1. Lion king
Members of the Chinese Theatre Circle in traditional costume performed the Lion Dance outside the Assembly Rooms in George Street to promote their Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, August 1988. Photo: Rod Fleming
2. Rumpelstiltskin
One of the performers from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe production of Rumpelstiltskin presents a rose to some children in August 1980. Photo: Alan Macdonald
![The Black Theatre Co-Op [now called Nitro] were in Edinburgh to present '65 With a Bullet' at the Gilded Balloon during Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1989. Dancers from the group do an enthusiastic Highland Fling with a piper.](https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/webimg/b25lY21zOjRhOWVjYjMwLTgzZWMtNDZhNS1hNGQ3LTIxZGFkZTE2ZThkNjoyOTgyOWRiZS1jNjI3LTQxNTItYmFjZC04NGRlYWFkY2JkYzQ=.jpg?crop=3:2&width=800)
3. Highland Fling
The Black Theatre Co-Op [now called Nitro] were in Edinburgh to present '65 With a Bullet' at the Gilded Balloon during Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1989. Dancers from the group do an enthusiastic Highland Fling with a piper. Photo: Rod Sibbald
4. Acrobats
Members of the National Revue Company (radio and TV broadcaster Arthur Smith extreme right) promote their Fringe production of Acrobats in Parliament Square during Edinburgh Festival 1980. Photo: Albert Jordan