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.
5. Fringe Sunday
Performers ('pneumatic art') promoting their show in Holyrood Park on Fringe Sunday, during the Edinburgh Festival in 1983. Photo: Alan Macdonald
6. Street performers
The High Street becomes pedestrian-only as Edinburgh Festival Fringe acts and street performers entertain the crowds in August 1981. Photo: Bill Stout
7. Daring stunt
Controversial French circus Archaos drive a motorbike over a car on Waverley Bridge as a publicity stunt for their Edinburgh Festival Fringe show in August 1989. Photo: Joe Steele
8. Mr Bean
Performer Rowan Atkinson (right), who went onto find fame as Blackadder and Mr Bean, pictured with Fringe director Alistair Moffat at a Fringe press conference during the Edinburgh Festival in 1980. Photo: Bill Newton