101 Year Old Care Home Resident Praises Edinburgh Fringe Initiative

A 101-year-old Edinburgh resident has praised an initiative that brings Fringe performers into Scottish care homes.

Delia Keir was 22 when she attended the very first Edinburgh International Festival way back in 1947.

Now living at Renaissance Care’s Glencairn Home in the city’s Grange area, Delia was thrilled when performers dropped in last week as part of Fringe Care Fest, an annual initiative organised by the Edinburgh Interfaith Association (EIFA).

Residents were treated to performances by Pitchblenders, a swing/jazz trio from Edinburgh and Hoop Babes, an award-winning, high-energy female circus duo from Wollongong, Australia.

“It was great, it was fun and I really enjoyed it,” said Delia.

The Edinburgh International Festival was created after World War II to reunite and heal Europe through culture, but it had a strict, invitation-only programme.

Refusing to be left out of the inaugural event in 1947, eight uninvited theatre groups staged their own shows on the “fringe” of the main event using alternative spaces such as church halls and pubs.

The performances gave birth to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“My first experience of the festival was way back in 1947, when I went with my boyfriend, David, and his family, a year before we got married,” said Delia.

“One of the unauthorised performances we went to was a comedy show, it was great fun and a great start to the theatrical movement!”

Delia said she hasn’t been able to attend the Fringe for many years, but in her younger years went regularly.

“It was always a good atmosphere and it brought so many people from all over the world,” she added.

Fringe Care Fest was created in August 2022 by Professor Joe Goldblatt, former chair and now ambassador of EIFA, after a close friend living with dementia was too frail to attend the festival in person.

Starting with one home, the programme has expanded and this year included 21 care homes across Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and Dunblane.

“One of our care home residents told me that when she entered care she felt as if a door to her life closed,” said Professor Goldblatt. “However, the Fringe Care Fest opened the door again so that her life could go on!”