Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1947

Under the leadership of artistic director, Rudolf Bing, companies including Glyndebourne Opera, the Halle Orchestra and Sadler's Wells Ballet were invited to perform.

In total, eight theatre companies (not all Scottish) who had not been invited by Bing decided to perform anyway, holding their own events in venues not used by the International Festival, plus Dunfermline Abbey, across the River Forth to the north of Edinburgh.

[3] At the time, the groups referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts"[4] and it was not until the following year that Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, is considered to have coined the phrase "fringe" to describe the event.

Glasgow Unity Theatre in particular had left wing political inclinations, and viewed the official festival as bourgeois and removed from the mass public, something they aimed to rectify.

[10] Attendances were generally good, and several shows were the subject of positive reviews, especially Everyman in Dunfermline, thereby increasing the likelihood of a repeat "unofficial" festival the following year.