Edinburgh Fringe festival kicks off with eclectic mix of comedy, celebrity and controversy

Comedy and controversy as Edinburgh Fringe begins

EDINBURGH, Scotland — More than 20,000 performers and hundreds of thousands of tourists are descending on Scotland’s capital for the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival.

The three-week arts extravaganza offers almost 2,500 drama, comedy, dance and music shows in venues including theaters, pubs, a parking lot and a mid-air restaurant suspended above a city park.

This year’s big names include comedian Eddie Izzard, actor Alan Cumming and Michael Urie of “Ugly Betty.”

One show getting attention is “Lockerbie: Unfinished Business,” the true story of one man’s struggle to find the truth behind his daughter’s death in the 1988 airplane bombing.

The Fringe runs from Friday until Aug. 30.