Edinburgh — the bustling capital of Scotland is where it all took place. Pamphlets gliding from hand to hand, spreading the news of an amazing show. Singers enchanting the ears of a future audience. Spirited shouts arousing curiosity. Taking place 24 hours a day for 25 days in August with over 250 venues, 3000 different shows and performers from over 50 countries. This is where the world’s largest performing arts festival, held every year since 1947, took place. The Fringe Festival.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world. The name “fringe” comes from the festival’s exclusive origins. Performers must be nominated through competitions. Nominations are submitted to the American High School Theatre Festival (AHSTF) from local competition finalists or winners. AHSTF recently began requesting nominations from esteemed directors and judges since not all schools have access to the competitions.

Harker nominations come from judges at competitions Top Honors, California Musical Theater Honors programs and the Ohlone College Theater Festival.

Naomi Molin (12), who has taken part in musicals since seventh grade, talked about her favorite parts of the festival.

“You’re always on the go and I love that about it,” Naomi said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life so far. You meet a lot of cool people like other high theater kids from all over America but also just random street performers. It’s incredible.”

This year, 2,500 schools were nominated, out of which 200 applied and 44 were selected to represent AHSTF.

Although invited every year, Harker attends once every four years. They perform that season’s Spring Musical at the festival, which this year was “Into the Woods.” The 43 students from the Harker School arrived in Edinburgh on Aug. 4, staying for a total of two weeks and spending  two days in London. The festival started on that Friday.

Harker’s performers, like everyone else at the fringe, promoted their show on a famous street in the city, the Royal Mile.

Shivani Awasthi (11) participated in Harker musicals in seventh, ninth, and 10th grades and enjoyed the large, performing arts-focused environment.

“I actually love the atmosphere [there],” Shivani  said. “It was very vibrant. Basically, from what we saw from the fringe, everywhere you go, people are handing you flyers, and we saw a lady singing opera in the streets.”

Namrata Vakkalagadda (‘14), went to the Fringe Festival in the summer after her Freshman year. In her high school years, she performed in many Fall Plays and Spring Musicals and also directed her own show. During her freshman year in college, she took part in a rock musical about the life of Andrew Jackson, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” and staged with a student group on campus called All Student Theater in a musical by Mel Brooks called “Young Frankenstein.”

“I really enjoyed going,” Namrata  said. “It was just really great to be exposed to all different types of theater. To be able to explore on an international skill was just a really great experience to have and to be able to perform and see other high schools perform as well.”

Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari (‘15) felt the whole trip was laborious, but exhilarating with a sense of family, fun, and excitement. He talked about how their group attracted an audience to go to their show.

“People who attend the fringe get hundreds of these fliers, so we actually gave them a little sack of jelly beans which we called magic beans and that pertained to our show and stuck a little flyer to it,” he said.

The cordial atmosphere along Royal Mile confronted Sameep Mangat (10). She expected to only socialize with her group, but received much more.

“I think just the fact that we’re all performers from different high schools across America is just amazing,” she said. “It was such a welcoming environment. I made some amazing friends during the fringe, and I’m definitely going to keep those friendships.”

Director the musical “Into the Woods” Laura Lang-Ree planned the entire trip and thought of PR ideas. She received a letter in the year of 2005, saying that the Harker crew has been nominated by the San Jose center for Performing Arts to participate in AHSTF group going to the fringe. To check for justification, she looked it up and ended up encountering the largest arts festival in the world.

“[Attracting an audience is] completely competitive. All of these very, very talented theater dance/music groups come to perform at the fringe and they’re all trying to attract an audience,” she said. “Being able to show something on the Royal Mile to an audience member to entice them to come and see your show is a big part of being at the Fringe Festival.”

The fringe provides a diverse scene, from spray painters to Japanese comedy tap shows to African drum bands to stand up comedies to acrobats to musicals to drag queens to orchestral concerts. The next chance for Harker to revisit this experience again will be in in the year of 2019.