The emergency services were called out to Kismot restaurant on St Leonards Street at the weekend after some of the competitors became “very unwell”. In order to compete, people must eat what is known as the “Kismot Killer” curry.

Scotland’s Ambulance Service has made calls for an immediate review into the management of the event. On the restaurant’s website, there is an insistence that participants first sign legal disclaimers before joining the competition, which aims to raise money for Chas, the Scottish children’s charity.

While the British Red Cross was at the event and on hand to deal with any incidents, the reactions of the two people were that violent that the Scottish Ambulance Service had to be called. Ms Curie Kim, a 21-year-old American student currently on an exchange trip to Edinburgh University, told reporters how she decided to sign up for the challenge upon seeing it advertised in Kismot.

Ms Kim added that she was in great pain and felt as though she had been cut through the stomach by a chainsawed covered in hot sauce. She concluded that she would never enter such a competition again and to cut down on her intake of spicy food altogether.

There are 2,542 shows scheduled to be staged by around 21,000 performers at what is the world’s biggest arts festival. For the first time in history, cabaret will feature as it was added to the long list of music, comedy, theatre, and dance performances.

Kath Mainland, the Festival Fringe Society’s chief executive told how 2011’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe line-up looks, and is, better than it has ever been before. She continued by explaining that although the event is exciting every time, this year is set to be something special given the combination of creative and talented individuals that have chosen to bring their work to Edinburgh.

The Fringe can be whatever they want to it to be, Mainland added, and the Fringe Festivals still remains the number one choice for performers, creators, artists, and producers to bring their work.

Malkovich is set to direct Julian Sands in a theatre production of a play that celebrates the legendary Harold Pinter’s work. A string of top names in the world of comedy are also set to return at various stages of the month-long festival. As mentioned, Al Murray will be there and is joined by the likes of Ed Byrne. Street dance group Flawless, remembered by the nation for reaching the final of 2009’s edition of Britain’s Got Talent, will return and a show from Paul Daniels and long-time partner Debbie McGee is also pencilled in.

With leading airlines slowly stabilising after the economic downturn and budget carriers once again offering dirt cheap tickets, it is often those who drive to and from the airport who are hit the hardest.

In July, the MP for Glasgow North West, John Robertson, called for lower charges on airport parking and lamented the fact that in a modern community which offers £1 flights little is being done to with consideration to motorists. Mr Robertson’s hometown Glasgow Airport currently charges £1 for short stays under 20 minutes, with longer stays costing up to £7.20 for three hours. Meanwhile, at Edinburgh Airport, as of next month any motorist collecting or dropping off passengers will be charged £1.

Thankfully, a new website has been developed to help domestic and international travellers get the best rates at worldwide airport parking stations. Worldparking.co.uk is dedicated to finding the best airport parking prices from leading providers within Britain and in the United States and Canada. By teaming up with the most established parking providers the UK-based site is able to deliver the best cheap airport parking deals to your next destination on either side of the Atlantic or across the UK.

Choose from great offers at Birmingham, Belfast, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester among others in the UK, with Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow all on sale in the capital. World parking also offers great deals at all of the leading US airports, including Atlanta Hartsfield International, Boston Logan International, Chicago Midway, Chicago O’Hare International, Dallas International, Los Angeles International, Miami International, New York La Guardia International and JFK, Seattle Tacoma International, Washington Dulles International. For travellers heading to Canada, parking reservations can be made at Montreal Dorval International, Toronto Lester B Pearson International and Vancouver International.

His impatiently awaited tour of the both the UK & Ireland is now scheduled to make stops in both Edinburg and Glasgow. Stewart will perform his Scottish capital show at the much reveared and mythical setting of Edinburgh Castle on July 14th.  He will also play at the Glasgow SECC nine days later. These will mark the first time in three year that the mfega selling artist will appeared for an act in Scotland.
Rod Stewart Scottish Tour dates and check the phone numbers for ticket details:

July 14th EDINBURGH, Castle 0871 220 0260 0844 395 4000
July 23rd GLASGOW, SECC 08444 775 775

This latest announcement follows the 7 UK Stewart dates which were revealed previously. Tickets for the UK and Ireland tour have been available since Friday November 27.

Stewart will set out on tour to promote his latest studio endeavour, ‘Soulbook’, which was recently launched.
‘Soulbook’, already the artist’s seventh UK Top Ten album this decade, reached No.10 in the UK and was ranked No.4 in the U.S. charts.

‘Soulbook’ has amazing interpretations of old soul classic songs from the 60s and 70s and features the singer performing in duets with Smokey Robinson, Mary Stevie Wonder and J. Blige.

Rod Stewart is the only two musical acts to have been rewarded with 5 platinum albums in the UK during the 2000s. The other performer is Robbie Williams.

Rod Stewart has sold some 250 million albums and singles through out his career and has managed to reach the Top Ten in the UK a stunning 27 times. He’s considered one of the most successful singers of all time.

All of Stewart’s 2010 UK dates:

DUBLIN, The O2 (May 11)
BELFAST, Odyssey (15)
NEWCASTLE, Metro Arena (18)
NOTTINGHAM, Arena (20)
BIRMINGHAM, NIA (22)
MANCHESTER, MEN (26)
LONDON, O2 (29)
EDINBURGH, Castle (July 14)
GLASGOW, SECC (23)

It is expected that, because of financing problems and uncertainty about the city centre capacity over the New Year period, the festival will have 25,000 tickets less than usual from the city’s celebrations.

This could have huge repercussions for the city’s economy as the festivities, which had enjoyed a 100,000 capacity since the beginning of the Millennium, normally generate about £40 million for the local Edinburg economy.

It is still not known if the ticket prices, which cost as much as £17 in 2008, will be increased to help compensate for the shortfall. For last year’s edition of Hogmanay, an excess of 10,000 tickets were left unsold.

The high-profile event for the Scottish capital’s Christmas celebrations, which includes the festival’s famous “winter wonderland” and giant Ferris wheel, for the first time is being scheduled for a weekend to permit roadwork to be completed.

Buses will be gone from Princes Street until 5am on Sunday 29 November, which is later than most local shops had been calling for.

However the Edinburg council, marketing agencies and business organisations have in the works the city’s largest ever Hogmanay promotional campaign as a boost to help them recover from the results of the tram construction work.

A promotional drive titled The “Edinburgh Sparkles” will promote the Hogmanay festivities as one of the country’s top party destinations following a final decision to permit buses back on to Princess Street during Christmas.

One source at the Edinburg city council meeting said that there was almost unanimous backing for resuming the normal traffic of buses on Princes Street as soon as possible.

According to Culture Minister Michael Russell a new dance and music event will be performed and presented in Edinburgh this upcoming Hogmanay and subsequently through out Scotland during the New Year thanks to a special £343,000 grant from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.

The new production – Off Kilter – will be a crowd pleasing and fresh celebration of Scotland’s unique music and dance styles.

New works from renowned choreographers Mark Morris and Ashley Page, the artistic director Scottish Ballet will be will premiere by the production.

The event will also feature dance from Frank McConnell and Scottish Dance Theatre’s Janet Smith, with music from Martyn Bennett to Calvin Harris.

Off Kilter will start at the Festival Theatre this Hogmanay prior to beginning a Scottish tour from January 2010 bringing it to Glasgow, Perth, Inverness and Aberdeen.

Culture Minister Michael Russell explained that dance is an intrinsic part of Scotland’s cultural identity. Off Kilter combines hip-hop, Indian classical, ballet, contemporary dance and traditional Highland styles – hence creating a fantastic mixture of styles that are alive and kicking in today’s Scotland.

Russel added that the Expo Fund is to encourage new works by artists in Scotland – and this new work delivers in every aspect involving artists through out the spectrum of dance, music, design and the visual arts.

This is undoubtedly a celebration of the contemporary Scotland which promotes our the nation’s particular culture and amazing talent around the world.

Breaking all previous records, the 63rd Fringe shrugged off the recession, swine flu, the rain, and a weak pound, by selling 21% more tickets than last year with a total of 1,859,235.

The 2009 box office is nearly 10% bigger than the previous record, in 2007. Last year, the festival was hit by the chaos of a dysfunctional ticketing system, and this year the crisis could have also threatened ticket sales.

Chief executive of the Fringe Society Kath Mainland said: “We can look back on a month of exceptional ticket sales and one of the best festivals in my 20 years in and around Edinburgh.

“Even in tough economic conditions festivals chime with people in a way few other events manage to. Over the last three and a half weeks I have seen some amazing work, sometimes perfectly trivial and enormously entertaining, sometimes incredibly challenging and often hugely moving.

“I have been blown away by the creative energy, artistic vision and drive of the people taking part, from performers and directors, to venue producers and promoters.

“There are many reasons why you would choose to bring a show to the Fringe, but this year it seems as though the process of making art is as important as ever.”

Director Tommy Sheppard said he was happy with the results: “It’s been a record- breaking year despite the fact we’ve had to operate behind an iron curtain imposed by the city’s tram builders.”

Despite the success of this year’s edition, some concerns remain to be worked on at the festival.

The first is the huge scale of the event. There were more than 2000 shows with more than 34,000 performances, a third of which were comedy shows.

Some visitors to the Edinburgh find the heavy Fringe programme daunting, while others delight in searching the diamonds amid the 280 pages of text.

Even the culture minister of admitted a sense of defeat about what shows to see, especially comedy.

Scotland Culture minister Michael Russell told reporters that the size of the festival was one of the “very substantial questions” to be tackled by the Fringe. He questioned whether the programme was too large, and “unmanageable”.

Defenders of the Fringe may explain its size is just a sign of its incredible success.

For the first time in 29-year, the prize is without a sponsor.

This year about 400 shows were competing for an award nomination, with a shortlist including Tom Wrigglesworth, Russell Kane, Tim Key and Idiots of Ants.

Other nominees for the awards – dubbed The Eddies – are Jon Richardson and John Bishop.

The comedy awards also have a ‘best newcomer’ prize.

The nominees for that prize are Jack Whitehall, Jonny Sweet, Carl Donnelly, Kevin Bridges and Pete Johansson.

To be announced on Saturday, the winner of the main prize is awarded to the top performer performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.

“Star” names are not eligible, meaning performers who have had TV series or perform in a 500-seat auditorium under their name.

The winner gets £8,000 and an invitation as guest performer at international comedy festivals in Toronto, Montreal and Chicago.

The award was first launched in 1981 to a Cambridge Footlights group including Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson – all future comedy stars at the time.

Its golden age period is considered to be the early 90s when the awards were won by greats like Frank Skinner, Steve Coogan and Lee Evans.

We would like to thank www.bbc.co.uk for information used in this article.

Shellsuits, high ponytails and dancers pushing vodka from old prams are not what most people usually expect to witness on a night at the ballet. With a twist by Ian Spink, however, ballet may take on a very different aspect from the more habitual confection.

A guest choreographer for Scottish Ballet, and commissioned to redesign Stravinsky’s Petrushka for the big Edinburgh Festival show, Spink has situated the ballet in 1990s Russia. He wanted to steer away from the usual treatment of ballet on to something “much more anarchic and rough around the edges”.

The tall of a puppet featured at a carnival has changed into the story of a dysfunctional little boy sporting Doc Marten boots, travelling around the land in a circus.

Departing from the original fairground backdrop to a crowdy, glasnost-era market scene, where gypsies mingle with rich women dressed in fur coats, all lining up to buy cuts of cheap meat, stolen camcorders and perfume bottles which fell off from the back of a lorry.

In Spink’s edition, replacing a puppet show entertaining the crowds, it is a old meat delivery truck which rolls into town, painted with Russian graffiti, and who’s passengers are three performers sick with cabin fever.

“The Edinburgh Festival is a time when you can be as adventurous and experimental as you like,” says Spink. “It’s almost expected.”

Scottish Ballet’s Petrushka, is set to be performed at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, September 4 and 5.

Call: 0131 473 2000 or www.scottishballet.co.uk

We would like to thank entertainment.timesonline.co.uk for quotes used in this article.

Here’s a list of the top club acts on offer in the coming days in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

David Holmes. See and hear why Holmes is one of the best and most diverse DJs in the country. Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Friday August 28

Modern Lovers. With John Maclean of The Aliens and ex-The Beta Band on decks. The GRV, Edinburgh, Friday August 28; Flying Duck, Glasgow, Saturday August 29.

Electric Frog Street Carnival Glasgow. Featuring Stacey Pullen, Tim Sweeney, Theo Parish, Tim Goldsworthy and more. Eastvale Place, Glasgow, Sunday August 30.

Million Dollar Disco. Bank holiday special with DJ Al Kent, featuring guest star Theo Parrish. Big Joint, Glasgow, Sunday August 30.

Club For Heroes. The underground disco night moves to a new venue. Celebrate with a guest set from Twitch. The GRV, Edinburgh, Thursday September 3.

Eyes Wide Open Now replaces Twisted Wheel. Glasgow’s leading freakbeat with live guests The Junipers and DJ Dishie. Blackfriars, Glasgow, Friday September 4.

Tokyoblu. Come say a fond farewell to Tokyoblu at the Cab; the house band will play their last ever set. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Friday September 4.

Melting Pot. Disco minds with guest DJs from London’s Horse Meat Disco and Warm. Admiral Bar Basement, Glasgow, Saturday September 5.

Second City. With members of the Seinan Music featuring Berlin producer Heiko. MSO. Stereo, Glasgow, Saturday September 5.

We would like to thank www.list.co.uk for information used in this article.