Last updated 22 Jun 2007 

The Festival scene is hotting up right now, with programmes launched and ticket sales well underway.  But plenty's already happened since last year's shindig - with news of a major new venue, changes at the top of the festivals and some controversial parting advice from Fringe supremo Paul Gudgin.  So if you were here last year - these are the changes you'll be seeing in 2007.

New venue rises from the Cowgate ashes

For those whose Fringe memory goes back a while, the most exciting news of 2007 is surely the emergence of a new venue at the old home of the Gilded Balloon.  But, five years after fire ripped through the Cowgate site, there will be no home-coming for the world-famous comedy venue - now comfortably relocated to Bristo Square.  Rival chain C venues have stepped in to run the temporary site, with ambitious plans to create seven-storey "mega-venue" linked to their main building on Chambers Street above.

The weirdly-named C SoCo will open on the fire site this year, featuring both indoor and outdoor performance spaces and a range of bars.  The detailed plans aren't yet that easy to visualise, but it seems a tented village on the Cowgate will be joined to the main C venue on Chambers Street by a seven-storey run through disused offices - a climb which will rival even the Underbelly's notorious spiral staircase for its sheer lung-busting verticality.

The Udderbelly

All change at the top

Meanwhile, it's been a year of change for Festival administrators - with the International Festival, Festival Fringe and International Film Festival all entering the 2007 season with new directors.  Perhaps the highest-profile appointment was the arrival of Australian Jonathan Mills at the "official" Festival, bringing with him a change of focus and a programme heavy on early music.  The critics have largely swung behind his artistic approach, and he'll be helped out by a cool million-pound cash injection from the Scottish Arts Council and Edinburgh-resident philanthropist Carol Colburn Høgel.

At the International Film Festival, Shetland-born Hannah McGill has taken the reins as artistic director, introducing the festival's first ever official "theme": Cinema and the Written Word.  The surprise of the year, though, is the departure of Paul Gudgin, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe director who has overseen its stratospheric growth for the past eight years.  In an interesting article in the Edinburgh Evening News, he sets out his view of the future for the Fringe - and highlights the lack of affordable accommodation in Edinburgh as the main brake on its future expansion.

Mr Gudgin moots the idea of 5,000 extra beds in student accommodation to be made available to visitors during Festival time - an idea which may, just possibly, get a warmer reception than the perennially-controversial Festival camp site, once again rejected by the city council back in January.  He's to be replaced in June by Jon Morgan, whose recent CV is heavy on youth theatre - and whose move from Manchester pleasingly mirrors the southward journey of outgoing International Festival director Sir Brian McMaster.

Staying tuned

We hope you've enjoyed this round-up of the key news since the Festival last year.  If you'd like to hear more from us during the Festival run-in, just ask us to keep you updated.  We promise we won't abuse your trust by passing on your details, and we'll never sign you up for a mailing list you didn't ask for.