Potentially a side effect of getting older but have been enjoying the Edinburgh International Festival shows more than the Fringe in recent years. They can be as playful as a fringe show depending on what you go to, for example was at an hour long Dvořák concert at Usher Hall last year where they’d replaced all the seating with beanbags. IIRC it was the Budapest orchestra or something but the conductor was doing a a mini standup comedy routine between the tracks.
Just generally the prices for EIF tickets tend to be pretty reasonable, like £20 or so, and they are heavily subsidised by arts councils so you see the best performers from around the world.
Another good one was a band from Berlin who did a cover of a Boards Of Canada EP without using any synthesizers. They used an actual brush to create the sweeping noisy, etc. That was a few years back though.
Some of the Free Fringe is great but I’ve still not recovered from a show I caught a few years back called Thus Spake Kev. It was a one man show where the most divorced man on the planet spoke about how he was reading Neitzche to try to make sense of his failed marriage where he’d cheated on his wife.
It was excruciating and there were only 4 of us in the audience so I felt too awkward to leave!
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