Edinburgh festivals start in sync for first time in 18 years

The Edinburgh International and the Fringe festivals start together for the first time in 18 years later.

The festivals have been out of sync by one week since the fringe decided to begin a week earlier in 1998.

Venues are already reporting an increase in advance sales, with international festival sales up by 25%.

The flagship event will open with Harmonium Project, a free concert and light show, outside the Usher Hall later.

The Edinburgh International Festival has a new director this year.

Fergus Linehan, a 43-year-old Irishman, will replace Jonathan Mills, who stepped down earlier this year after eight years in charge.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in numbers:

• There will be 50,459 performances of 3,314 shows between 7 and 31 August

• The number of shows is a 3.8% increase on last year's programme

• Acts from 49 countries are taking part in the festival, including Japan, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand and Finland.

• The majority of shows are billed as comedy - 34% - while theatre makes up 27%, music 14%, children's shows 5% and cabaret 4%.

• There are 807 free shows for audiences to try and 1,778 premieres.

• A total of 313 venues are being used, including 14 new ones across Edinburgh.

• Among the new venues are a double decker bus parked in South College Street, the 15th century-built Crichton Collegiate Church in Midlothian, the Ross Bandstand in West Princes Street Gardens and Hardeep Singh Kohli's restaurant, V Deep, in Leith.

• Last year, almost 2.2 million tickets were sold for Fringe events, a 12% increase on 2013.

Meanwhile an Edinburgh Fringe comedy by euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, which explores ways to skirt around laws on assisted suicide, went ahead despite being threatened with closure.

The show, titled Dancing With Death, has Dr Nitschke "teaching the funny side of the right-to-die debate" to Edinburgh audiences, as well as offering demonstrations of his "Destiny" euthanasia machine.

However, during rehearsals on Tuesday, the head of voluntary euthanasia group Exit International was visited by the police and the city council, who raised last-minute safety concerns about the production.

Medical professionals said that administering nitrogen via nasal prongs could put vulnerable people at risk.

There was also concern that having a gas tap close to the audience could breach licensing conditions.

Dr Nitschke gave assurances on safety

Dr Nitschke - nicknamed Dr Death - later offered to use compressed air instead of nitrogen in the machine which he uses at the opening of the show.

But, five hours before he went on stage on Thursday night, permission was refused.

The show went ahead minus the controversial performance.

A spokesman for Dr Nitschke said: "The authorities turned up in their numbers and they made it quite clear that they weren't going to allow the machine to be used or shown in any way.

"It slowed down the start of the show and it was a bit disappointing.

"But, apart from that, the show went well and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it."