Every August, Edinburgh stops being just a city and starts acting up—literally. From pub basements to park benches, stages appear in the strangest places, and shows pop up on quiet streets. Welcome to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, or the Fringe. The story began in 1947, when eight theater groups turned up uninvited to the Edinburgh International Festival. They performed anyway. That spirit of rebellion stuck, and the Fringe was born.

Now it's the world's largest arts festival, with thousands of shows crammed into three action-packed weeks. Anyone can perform. If you have an idea and a venue, you're in. Even a shipping container counts—yes, that really happened. Comedy is the unofficial king of the festival, but there's also drama, dance, drag, musicals, magic, mime, spoken word, circus, and acts that defy all categories. One year, a man did an hour-long monologue from inside a fridge. Another year featured a full Shakespeare play in Klingon. Street performers flood the Royal Mile, pictured here, offering sneak peeks, juggling acts, and flyers. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is where experimental performances and high-end theater thrive. It has launched careers: think of artists like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Eddie Izzard.