Power cut hits Edinburgh on first day of Fringe Festival

There have been multiple reports of shows being cancelled or relocated in the Old Town

Author: Paul ReillyPublished 2nd Aug 2024

A power cut is reported to have caused disruption on the first day of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

There have been multiple reports of shows being cancelled or relocated in the Old Town due to outages on social media since around 4.30pm on Friday.

Organisers posted on X, formerly Twitter: "There's a power outage in some city centre postcodes at the moment, which may be affecting some #edfringe venues - if you're an affected venue and you see this, add a reply so we can let people know!"

One user posted: "Massive power cut in Edinburgh. Thesps are roaming the streets looking for spotlights and audience."

Another posted: "All shows stopped near Pleasance Dome. Mad. Hope all performances and audiences can get back on asap."

Edinburgh Travel News, an account run by a team from City of Edinburgh Council, said the outage was also affecting some traffic signals in the city.

"Several sets of traffic lights out around the Newington/south side area, looks to be a power fault," they said.

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