Just three nights before the official return of Scotland’s biggest cultural celebration there was little sense of what is about to unfold in Edinburgh city centre.

Only a handful of Fringe shows were up and running as the finishing touches are made to temporary venues across the city.

A crowd of super-keen enthusiasts were packed into the Traverse for a sneak preview of one of the most anticipated shows of the season in the city, The Singer, a “gig theatre” show which KT Tunstall has written a clutch of foot-stomping new songs for.

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An hour and a half later, the 270-strong audience rose in a standing ovation, one of the first of the month in a city which will see performances play out across well over 300 stages.

Just 48 hours later, an 8800-strong audience was settling down to watch the latest reinvention of the Royal Edinburgh Military unfold in spectacular style over 90 minutes.

The Black Blues Brothers have travelled from Kenya to take part in this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Lesley Martin/PA Wire)

As the 800 performers drawn from around Europe, New Zealand, Qatar and the United States took their bows and waved up at the international audience packed into the stands, it felt as if Edinburgh had once again reclaimed its place as the cultural capital of the world.

By then, venues had staged launch parties, hundreds of companies had appeared before their first audiences, and the streets of the city’s Old Town were thronged with performers, audience members, festival regulars and bemused visitors, who just happen to have booked a holiday in the midst of a season of events expected to attract an overall audience of up to four million by the end of August.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been running since 1947. (Image: Ken........

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