What hppens to Edinburgh’s stuff when the lights go out? - Vladimir McTavish
Taking the bus up The Mound earlier this week, I very much enjoyed the view of Princes Street Gardens in the glow of its festive lights, the big wheel and the Christmas Market. It looks enchanting from a distance.
Two thoughts did cross my mind, however. The first one was “Thanks goodness, I’m not actually in there”.
I’ve seen it close up before. Once was enough. The second musing was “Where does all this Yuletide stuff go for the other ten-and-a-half months of the year?”
It’s tempting to imagine it is all spirited back to some magic winter cave in the North Pole.
The reality is that it probably all gets transported to some large, faceless shed on an industrial estate just off the M8, where it will stay until next November.
Obviously it makes so much money during the festive season, there is no real need for it to have any year-round purpose.
I’m assuming the ice rink simply melts and is poured down a drain. I don’t know what happens to the skates themselves these days, but I do know that they used to be stored in a garage in Carlops.
One of my daughter’s first jobs was having to commute daily down to the Borders, to a freezing cold outhouse, where she was one of a team sharpening the blades.
Not work done by elves, but by school-leavers on minimum wage.
Edinburgh is a city which transforms itself several times over the course of the calendar year.
Much of the hardware used during the Fringe in August and some of the pop-up venues is packed away from the start of September until late July.
We’re so used to our city being a permanent stage that most of us give no thought to the happens to the sets once each event has ended.
But what about the big illuminated EDINBURGH sign? From the top of The Mound, you can see its shining outline in Princes Street Gardens up until New Year, and then it is gone.
But where to? Obviously it’s no use anywhere else. Or is it?
It could be exported to one of the other cities in the world named after our Auld Reekie. In the USA, there is in Edinboro in Pennsylvania and Edinburg, Texas. But there won’t want it as they can’t even spell their own names correctly.
However, there is a town called Edinburgh in Indiana, which hosts an annual Fall Fair. According to their website, this is a “fun-filled four-day event of carnival rides and entertainment”. Hardly worth shipping a massive sign across the Atlantic for a long weekend.
There is also an Edinburgh in South Australia, a suburb just north of Adelaide.
It is home to a number of Australian air force units and a significant defence zone, housing military aircraft and drones. I’m guessing the don’t want a huge illuminated sign to advertise any of that?
We could always leave where it is for the full twelve months of the year, so tourists can take selfies in front of it.
It would also help performers during the Fringe, staggering home at 3am after a late drinking session, thinking “Where the Hell am I? Of course, I’m in Edinburgh!”
I’ll drink to that idea.