Introducing The Besties! – New Awards at the Edinburgh Festivals

The Besties, or The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards (for festivals) to give them their longer, more descriptive name, is a new series of awards running weekly during the Edinburgh Festivals in August. Produced in partnership with Capital Theatres, Premier Scotland, The Skinny and Fest magazines, the awards will platform the best work on show this summer, drawing on our review teams’ exhaustive knowledge to celebrate work from across the different festivals.

The awards are being designed by Camillo Feuchter, whose work can be seen in the Interior & Environmental Design department Duncan of Jordanstone degree show until 2 June. The design has sustainability at its core – Camillo will produce The Besties using recyclable plastics gathered at the Festival Theatre Café and leftover wood harvested from cultural venues in the city.

Winners of The Besties will be chosen each week by the editorial teams of The Skinny and Fest, drawing on their cross-festival expertise to celebrate the best work happening anywhere in the festivals. The weekly awards ceremonies are to be produced by Premier Scotland and hosted by Capital Theatres at the Festival Theatre on Saturday mornings during the festival season, featuring entertainment and a guest host to help hand out the awards.

The categories will reflect the diversity of the magazines’ coverage, with an Outwith award highlighting the best international talent, while the Great Scot will honour work from closer to home. As the only publications (that we know of) with a canine comedy correspondent, there will of course be an award chosen by our very own Fringe Dog, a sort of spirit of the Fringe accolade dubbed The Terrier Fringe Dog Award for Waggiest Tail. Rumours of The Sexy Award for Sexiness may or may not be exaggerated. We’ll be covering Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, and more besides.