Fringe Cares Fest Produces Thousands of Smiles!
A musical memory of 1969 returns to Care Home resident
and she sings along joyfully!
Professor Joe Goldblatt
As the 2024 Edinburgh Festivals come to a close, for hundreds of care home residents, the memories shall remain fresh for a long time.
“Joy! Pure Joy! For one month Edinburgh was filled with joy!” This exclamation from a local care home resident now in her late eighties was shared as she remembered as a young child being driven by her mother to perform songs from The Sound of Music at the 1969 Festival Fringe. Two hours later when a troupe of performing artists from Norwich, England performed Broadway show tunes including Climb Every Mountain this same resident enthusiastically raised her soprano voice to once again sing along.
This is the magic of a relatively new three year old initiative entitled the Fringe Cares Fest where Fringe performers visit local care homes to share the same artistry they present at Fringe venues. For the vast majority of care home residents it is difficult and many times impossible for them to leave there care home to attend a Fringe performance and that is why a partnership of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, Barchester Healthcare, and Scottish Cares teamed up to bring 14 different performances to 8 local care homes this August. Over 500 care home residents, their family and friends and staff enjoyed songs from Broadway, modern dance from Philadelphia, and melodies made popular by Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Etta James.
Another resident said “Although I am not religious, there is something spiritual and uplifting about music expecially when you are discovering a new song for the first time. For those of us who sit here day after day, bringing the same music you would hear at the Festival truly lifts our souls!”
An international cast of street and main stage performers from Austalia, the USA, and UK amazed and delighted the care home residents with hula hoop artistry, juggling, dramatic dance, and popular songs that when performed literally had the residents “Dancing Cheek to Cheek” with one another, family, friends, and staff. At the final care home performance residents formed a long and lively conga line that snaked through the activity room as they danced to Mack the Knife.
Prior to the performances some residents volunteered to be interviewed for a podcast entitled Memories of the Fringe where they recalled their earliest memories of attending the worlds largest arts festival. One woman said “I was watching a street performer on the Royal Mile and began to take pictures. A man offered to help me with my camera. He became my husband and we were happily married for many years.”
There are currently 60 council supported care homes in the city of Edinburgh and the goal of the Edinburgh Interfaith Association is to bring the experience of the Fringe Festival to each and every one of them and their almost 3000 residents. I suspect the smiles shall multiply and the conga line will grow longer and even more livelier in the years to come with future support.
Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University, Chair of Edinburgh Interfaith Association, and the founder of the Fringe Cares Fest. His views are his own. For more information about how you may support this project please contact chair@edinburghinterfaith.com