Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 20

bands instead of orchestras, and clowns, acrobats, jugglers, and strongmen
instead of cellists (Scottish Daily Express ����). Audiences would have clearly
recognized these juxtapositions as exemplars of high and lowbrow (popular)
cultural pursuits, the difference between which had been part of public
debate on culture since during the Second World War. The emphasis in the
post-war cultural debate, however, focused on standards. And it was because
artistic standards could not be guaranteed in the Fringe that it was decided
in ���� that the official Festival would not incorporate it into its program.
Consequently, efforts were made to develop a separate, alternative festival.
By ����, the Festival Fringe Society was established and was underpinned
by a commitment to welcome anyone who wished to come and perform in
Edinburgh during festival-time (which is still the case today). � This was to
mark a new and, as the ����s progressed, increasingly co-operative stage in
the relationship between the two festivals.
During the ����s, Edinburgh developed a reputation for being at the forefront
of experimentation in the arts, particularly in the dramatic arts. This was
partly influenced by: the wider cultural upheavals of the ����s, including the
folk song, CND, and Beat movements that had stirred from the mid-����s;
the fusion of creativity and protest; and the almost hedonistic attitude of
youth that had come from growing up during the stifling atmosphere of the
Cold War. During the ����s, Robert Hewison (����) argues that ‘the arts were
a battleground for the conflicting forces of social change’—and Edinburgh
became a focal point in this. In ����, Jim Haynes, a young American who
had arrived in Edinburgh in autumn ���� as part of his national service,
had opened Britain’s first paperback-only bookshop in Edinburgh. The
Paperback Bookshop was not just a bookshop, it was also a salon, coffee
house, a gallery, a theatre, and a meeting place—including for the recently
created Festival Fringe Society. Through the Paperback, Haynes became
friends with the London publisher John Calder, who had quickly established
a reputation as the leading British publisher of European and American
avant-garde literature. Together, they introduced an International Writer’s
Conference to the official Festival Programme in ���� and an International
Drama Conference in ����, events that brought artists together to discuss
the issues important in their fields—and which brought controversy to the
festivals (Bartie ����; Bartie and Bell ����; Bartie ����).
�
A happening is a theatrical event, usually improvised or spontaneous, designed to surprise
the audience/onlookers and blur the boundaries between theatre and reality.
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