The first week of the inaugural Skinny-Fest Festival Awards aka The Besties are here!
The winners of Edinburgh’s newest awards show, The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards (for festivals) or The Besties received their awards at the Festival Theatre this morning. The winners were chosen by the editorial teams of The Skinny and Fest, drawing on their cross-festival expertise to celebrate the best work happening anywhere in the festivals. The first seven categories reflect the diversity of the magazines’ coverage.
The award ceremony was hosted by Australian comedian Michelle Brasier whose show Legacy is at the Gilded Balloon. The cast of A History of Paper, a Dundee Rep and Traverse Theatre co-production being staged at the Traverse also treated guests and winners to a performance.
Complete list of winners:
What our judges had to say:
🏆 The Kids Award
(chosen by the Fest Kid Critics)
Garry Starr – Monkeys Everywhere
This show was highly rated by all of Fest’s kid critic review team who saw it. Described by one parent as “The only kids show I have ever actually enjoyed,” Monkeys Everywhere achieves the rare feat of being entertaining for both children and adults.
🏆 The Outwith Award
for international talent
Lou Wall – The Bisexual’s Lament
Reviewers from both publications highly rated Lou Wall’s high energy show with unapologetic silliness. Fest deputy editor Ben Venables says “They can play the internet like it’s a musical instrument.”
🏆 Emerging Talent Award
Kim Blythe – Might As Well Comedy
The most emerging of emerging talent, this was the TikTok comedian’s debut hour and our team felt it shows that she’s the real deal.
🏆 The Night Owl Award
John Norris for Mr Chonkers, Piggy Time
We wanted to celebrate John Norris for his shows and also his commitment to demonstrating the spirit of the Fringe. He’s selected for doing good, supportive and genuinely ‘Fringe’ things in a late night slot.
🏆 The Sexy Award for Sexiness
Penthesilea
We introduced this award because depicting eroticism in all its messiness, immediacy, and intensity is one of the most difficult and exhilarating things that live theatre can do. We were blown away by the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s production of Penthesilea, a blood-soaked punk adaptation of the Heinrich von Kleist’s play, in which sex is as visceral as war and mythic battles become a cipher for states of impossible desire.
🏆 Radgie of the Fringe Award
Frankie Monroe
We can’t think of anyone better to win the inaugural radgie than the character created by Joe Kent-Walters. Fest’s reviewer asked “What is this greasepaint-faced northern ghoul scuttling up to the stage? Why is he at once thoroughly disgusting, and yet strangely pitiable? Why are we laughing quite so hard at his special trowel?
🏆 New Writing Award
The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return Chalk Line Theatre regularly produce some of the most incisive writing that comes out of the Fringe. Their new production, The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return, takes as its subject one of the UK’s most economically deprived and politically neglected towns, bringing noughties Luton to life in a script that vibrates with wit, charm, and anger.
Keep an eye on Capital Theatre’s channels throughout August to see more about The Besties, produced in partnership with The Skinny, Fest Magazine and Premier Scotland.
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The Besties
