Five things you need to know today

Police launch festival campaign – Fireworks on Friday – Flamenco flashmob – New app for the Festival – Edinburgh Festival Fringe pick of the day

Police in Edinburgh launched their campaign to raise awareness of the 101 number for reporting non urgent crime. Watch our video report here:-

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMgjQ8g_i7M?list=UUpyjaNvEF_ryiKTJ6QxCkIA]

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Later today the Edinburgh International Festival, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and event sponsor Virgin Money host the second Fireworks Friday, the weekly celebration leading up to the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert, the spectacular annual event which brings Edinburgh’s summer festival season to a close.

They will be joining forces with their Virgin Money Fireworks Concert broadcast partner Forth Radio, giving a few lucky winners the chance to snap up tickets to the event. Breakfast show presenters Boogie and Arlene will be at the Ross Band Stand in Princes Street Gardens from 1pm, handing out ‘Virgin Money’ red balloons to members of the public. Five balloons will enclose a voucher for a family ticket to the Fireworks Concert.

The giveaway will also be an opportunity for media to photograph Boogie and Arlene from 1 – 1.30pm.

Boogie and Arlene were recently announced as presenters of this year’s Virgin Money Fireworks Concert broadcast on Forth Radio. They join fellow Forth One colleague Grant Stott on the Concert team, with Grant returning as announcer for this year’s event.

A competition will also run on the Festival Facebook and Twitter profiles where the first people to send in photos capturing the ticket giveaway in the Gardens will win tickets to the event. Entrants should post their photos on the Festival Facebook page or use the hashtag #VMFireworksFriday on Twitter.

There’s just one more ‘Fireworks Friday’ to go, on 9 August – the opening day of Festival 2013 – with further activity around the city and online competitions. Details of these will be available via social media.

On Sunday 1 September at 9.00pm the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert brings Festival 2013 to an end in epic style. More than 400,000 fireworks, choreographed to live orchestral music, will light up the sky against the iconic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle, in what is the largest annual fireworks concert in the world. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Garry Walker, will perform Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, accompanied by an awe-inspiring display created by international firework artists Pyrovision.

Last year around 250,000 people gathered in Princes Street and at vantage points around Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians, to share in the spectacle.

Virgin Money Fireworks Concert

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Garry Walker Conductor

Musorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)

Sunday 1 September 9.00pm

Sponsored by Virgin Money
eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks

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More than 50 dancers age 18-75 surprised passers-by with a flamenco flashmob yesterday evening as part of the opening events of just festival.

The flashmob featured solo performances by professional dancers as well as a powerful choreographed routine performed by the whole group, set to live flamenco music. There was also a rumba finale, a real party piece.

The dancers came from all over the city following a call out from event partners Hispanic Arts Scotland and Just Festival to residents of Wester Hailes and Craigmillar to take part in a series of free classes ahead of the event, as well as classes hosted by the national dance agency Dance Base.

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Suggest My Fest app helps everyone discover their perfect Edinburgh International Festival.

Are you feeling epic? If so you may want to catch Beijing People’s Art Theatre’s Coriolanus, or perhaps you are looking to have your brain stretched in which case one of the Festival’s series of Interfaces with leading debaters and talkers on topics around digital and data in our contemporary world might be the suggestion for you, or you may just want a light, fun, big hearted night out… you should book tickets for Don Quichotte du Trocadero.

The Edinburgh International Festival has launched its new Facebook recommendation app which helps audiences select the perfect Festival events whatever their mood or desire may be.

Suggest My Fest is a fun app simple to use and possibly quite addictive.

It is available on the Festival website now at eif.co.uk/suggest. Alongside four suggested shows for each search, an additional wild card will encourage people to try something a little different. With information on the wide range of Festival discounts and special ticket offers available sitting alongside the app, an adventure could not be more accessible.

Jackie Westbrook, the Festival’s Marketing and Communications Director, said: ‘The Festival is constantly looking to add extra value around the audience experience. With Suggest My Fest we hope to engage with our existing audience and bring new audiences to our rich and varied programme. By embedding it on third party websites we also hope to extend the Festival’s reach and actively encourage more tourists and visitors to enjoy the world’s Festival city.’

Yaniv Mazor, Head of Digital at Edinburgh International Festival, said ’We are excited to use online technologies to contribute to the Festival experience. There is still untapped potential in bringing together social and open graph information with the Festival’s open data source (API). With a fantastic choice of over 230 events in our programme, Suggest My Fest is a helpful and entertaining tool to find the perfect events for each user.’

The Edinburgh International Festival commissioned and creatively developed the app with Storm Ideas, Suggest My Fest was also developed in collaboration with Festivals Edinburgh Innovation Lab, with support from Scottish Enterprise, allowing other festivals in the city to use it following its creation for the Edinburgh International Festival.

Suggest My Fest is available on the Festival website now: eif.co.uk/suggest

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We are off to see Lockerbie – Lost Voices tonight at The Netherbow Theatre. Co written by Leither Alex Wilson it features conversations from six hypothetical passengers before and after Lockerbie. Tickets for shows from today till 26 August are available here.