Edinburgh's showpiece cultural event takes place in various venues across the city over a three-week period in late summer. The festival brings a rich programme of classical music, theatre, opera and dance to the city every year. The festival began in 1947, with the aim of providing 'a platform for the flowering of the human spirit'. Right from the start it inspired people to put on shows of their own out with the official festival, and soon these grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (see separate entry). Since then half a dozen or so more festivals have grown up around it in August and early September, and collectively these are often known as the 'Edinburgh Festival'.

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