Thousands flock to Edinburgh festival

A new film by "Billy Elliot" screenwriter Lee Hall will premiere at the festival

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- More than 100,000 people crowded Edinburgh streets to kick off the world's largest arts festival with a grand parade.

The 54th annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival boasts having more off-beat comedy, drama, music and visual arts events than ever before.

The three-week cultural extravaganza features acts ranging from the Puppetry of the Penis "physical theatre" show to a performance of Les Troyens, Hector Berlioz's epic opera.

With performances by 666 groups from 49 different countries in 1,462 shows, festival promoters said it will be the "strongest" show yet.

Fringe Director Paul Gudgin said: "I am thrilled to say we are over 200,000 up at the box office -- proof it were needed, that Edinburgh is the only place to be in August.

Visitors from as far off as The Cook Islands, Australia, Brazil and the U.S. have flocked to the Scottish capital to attend the festival, which is listed in the The Guiness Book of Records as the largest celebration of the arts in the world.

Events include a show by a honeymooning couple whose wedding is being held the day before the show opens and a one-man show playing to a one-person audience in a two-seater car.

The Fringe Festival is actually one of seven festivals falling under the title of Edinburgh Festival. Other festivals encompassed under this include the International, Film, Jazz, Book and Television Festivals, and the Military Tattoo.

U.S. novelist and commentator Gore Vidal and Zadie Smith, author of the award-winning debut novel White Teeth will participate in the International Book Festival, which opens on August 11 at Charlotte Square Gardens.

PD James, Nick Hornby and Edinburgh's own Ian Rankin will also attend.

The Edinburgh International Festival and the International Film Festival open on August 12.

The International Festival, out of which the Fringe grew, will host Berlioz's two-night opera and concerts by the Russian National Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

World premieres of Gabriel and Me by Billy Elliot screenwriter Lee Hall, and Crush, starring Hollywood actress Andie MacDowell, will debut during the film festival.

The first non-U.S. screening of Michael Apted's version of Robert Harris' best-seller Engima will also take place.

An appearance by U.S. actor and director Sean Penn is also expected. Penn's latest film, The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro and Vanessa Redgrave, will have its UK premiere at the festival.

The Edinburgh Festival began in 1947 with the first Edinburgh International Festival.

The debut festival featured the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Old Vic Theatre Company.

The Fringe Festival started the same year when eight theatre companies not included in the official programme put on shows in smaller venues away from the city centre, as did the Film Festival.

These original events were subsequently joined by a Military Tattoo (1950), a Television festival (1975), a Jazz festival (1978) and a Book festival (1983), creating a three-week long cultural extravaganza that now takes over the entire city.

Some of the world's best-known writers and performers began their careers at the festival. Tom Stoppard's breakthrough play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, was first performed there in 1966, while Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller made their names in the legendary 1960 satirical revue Beyond The Fringe.

The first-ever winners of The Perrier Award, the annual accolade for the best comedy show, were The Cambridge Footlights, featuring a then-unknown Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Clive Anderson and Angus Deayton. All are now household names in the UK.