The Besties: Week One Winners

The Edinburgh Festivals are in full, frightening swing, and as the first full week wraps up, we're delighted to announce the winners of the first round of The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards (for Festivals) – or the Besties, for short.

Our new awards – a collab between us, our siblings at Fest magazine, Capital Theatres, and Premier Scotland – are the only awards celebrating all of the Edinburgh Festivals. We're giving out delightful handmade awards to the best of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Here are The Besties winners for week one, awarded at the Festival Theatre this morning (Sat 10 Aug) at a ceremony hosted by Australian comedian Michelle Brasier:

The  Outwith Award (for best international artist/production) for Lou Wall’s The Bisexual Lament at Pleasance Courtyard (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

Reviewers from both The Skinny and Fest highly rated Lou Wall’s high energy show with unapologetic silliness. Fest deputy editor Ben Venables says: “[Wall] can play the internet like it’s a musical instrument.” Photo by Monica Pronk

Radgie of the Festivals (for boldest performance/behaviour) for Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!! at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

We can’t think of anyone better to win the inaugural Radgie than the character created by Joe Kent-Walters. Fest’s reviewer Evan Beswick asked: “What is this greasepaint-faced northern ghoul scuttling up to the stage? Why is he at once thoroughly disgusting, and yet strangely pitiable? Why are we laughing quite so hard at his special trowel?” Photo by Matt Stronge

The Sexy Award for Sexiness to Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s Penthesilea, Royal Lyceum Theatre (Edinburgh International Festival)

We introduced this award because depicting eroticism in all its messiness, immediacy, and intensity is one of the most difficult and exhilarating things that live theatre can do. We were blown away by the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s production of Penthesilea, a blood-soaked punk adaptation of the Heinrich von Kleist play, in which sex is as visceral as war and mythic battles become a cipher for states of impossible desire. Photo by Jess Shurte

Night Owl (for a late night show) to John Norris for Mr Chonkers / Mr Chonkers Presents…Piggy Time at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

We wanted to celebrate John Norris for his shows and also his commitment to demonstrating the spirit of the Fringe. He’s selected for doing good, supportive and genuinely ‘Fringe’ things in a late night slot. Photo by Alan Michnoff

Best Kids Show for Garry Starr’s Monkeys Everywhere at The Pleasance (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

This show was highly rated by all of Fest’s kid critic review team who saw it. Described by one parent as “the only kids show I have ever actually enjoyed,” Monkeys Everywhere achieves the rare feat of being entertaining for both children and adults. Gary Starr’s physical comedy explores mental health while also pretending to throw poo at the audience – children were shrieking with laughter.

Next Big Thing Award for Emergent Talent for Kim Blythe’s Might As Well at Gilded Balloon (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

The most emerging of emerging talent, this was the TikTok comedian's debut hour and our team felt it shows that she's the real deal.

New Writing Award for The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return at Summerhall (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)

Chalk Line Theatre regularly produce some of the most incisive writing that comes out of the Fringe. Their new production, The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return, takes as its subject one of the UK’s most economically deprived and politically neglected towns, bringing noughties Luton to life in a script that vibrates with wit, charm, and anger. Photo by Lidia Crisafulli

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Winners of The Besties are 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 categories will reflect the diversity of the magazines’ coverage and might be different every week. Next two ceremonies will take place on Saturday 17 and 24 August.