Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland

Expect the unexpected. Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Every August, Edinburgh stops being just a city and starts acting up—literally. From pub basements to park benches, stages appear in the strangest places and shows pop up on quiet streets. Welcome to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, or the Fringe. The story began in 1947, when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to the Edinburgh International Festival. They performed anyway. That spirit of rebellion stuck, and the Fringe was born.

Now it's the world's largest arts festival, with thousands of shows crammed into three action-packed weeks. Anyone can perform. If you have an idea and a venue, you're in. Even a shipping container counts—yes, that really happened. Comedy is the unofficial king of the festival, but there's also drama, dance, drag, musicals, magic, mime, spoken word, circus and acts that defy all categories. Comedy rules the roost: Canadian standups like Glenn Wool (a frequent Fringe performer since the '90s), JJ Whitehead (14 appearances to his credit) and Dana Alexander (a Chortle-nominated comic) have all brought their humour here. Street performers flood the Royal Mile, pictured here, offering sneak peeks, juggling acts and flyers. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is where experimental performances and high-end theatre thrive. It has launched careers: think of artists like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Eddie Izzard.