Well summertime in Britain for a lot of people means festival time. Two of the biggest festivals in Britain are The Notting Hill Carnival, and the Edinburgh Festival (which is not really one festival, but a group of festivals which take place around the same time). I’ve put together a series of question to help you find out more about these events, based on information available on the internet. Read the questions, then open the links to try and find the answers. All the links should open in new windows so you don't lose the questions.

The Notting Hill Carnival

To begin with, some background, and pictures

http://www.caliach.com/paulr/notthill/

  1. Where does the Notting Hill Carnival rank world-wide in terms of size and which festival(s) is/are bigger?
  2. What reputation did it have in the 1970s and 80s?
  3. How has this changed?
  4. How many people were involved in 1995?

There is a lot of useful, interesting information on the official web-site:

http://www.nottinghillcarnival.net.uk/ (this should appear in a new window)

  1. When is the Carnival this year?
  2. Which tube stations are nearest the Carnival area (look at the map)?
  3. When is the Grand Costume Gala?
  4. Which types of music do ‘This Generation’ (a sound system) play?
  5. Name four performers who are playing on the three live stages.
  6. What advice do they give about shoes?
  7. Where should you go if you prefer the sound systems?
  8. What is the most important thing they advise you to do?
  9. What essential equipment do they mention?

Once you've answered these questions, you're ready for some Carnival history: click here for a multuple choice reading exercise.

Now once you've done that, let's try a gap fill exercise (click here) based on the same text.

Write some more questions for other students to answer and send them (along with the answer!) to: webmaster@efllinks.freeservers.com

 

The Edinburgh Festival

‘The Scotsman’ newspaper has a very informative, comprehensive site which includes a very useful city guide:

http://www.festival.scotsman.com/cfm/home/headlines.cfm

  1. How many festivals are there in Edinburgh in and around August -not including the Science festival? (look at the top of the home page, but ‘visual arts’ is not actually a festival, nor is the military tattoo)
  2. What does it say about the bar staff in The Basement bar? (go to 'City Guide' then 'Bars' and search or list a-z)
  3. Approximately how many shows are on at the Assembly Rooms? (got to 'Venues')
  4. What recommendation do they make about arranging your accommodation?

The Scotsman is also involved in another general festivals site

http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk

  1. How many festivals are there in the whole year in Edinburgh?
  2. Why is the Edinburgh festival Fringe in the Guinness Book of Records?
  3. What is ‘Hogmonay’ and what happens in Edinburgh then?
  4. Where is the Fringe Office and what is their e-mail address? (go to ‘contact the festival’)

The ‘original’ Edinburgh festival is the International festival:

http://www.eif.co.uk

  1. When is the festival?
  2. Who is the main sponsor?
  3. Which types of performance does it include?
  4. How old is the festival? (look in ‘2000’, then ‘about’)
  5. Which of Handel’s Operas can you go to see and who is performing it?
  6. What is the series of events entitled ‘Work, Sex and Drink’ about?

The biggest of the festivals is now The Edinburgh festival fringe:

http://www.edfringe.com

  1. How many companies are putting on Macbeth? (use the ‘search’ facility)
  2. How mant different types of e-postcard can you send? (look in 'Fun')
  3. When did the fringe begin? (look in 'History' in the pull-down menu on the right of the home page - Ed's short cut)
  4. How many groups performed in 1962, and approximately how many perform nowadays?
  5. What's the weather like in Edinburgh today ?(look in 'Ed's shortcut')
  6. Approximately how many performances are there in Edinburgh during the Fringe? (look in 'Edinburgh at festival time' in 'Ed's shortcuts')

There’s also the Film Festival:

http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/index.html

  1. When is the festival?
  2. What’s the opening film?
  3. What’s the closing film?
  4. Which video by the band REM can you see at the festival?
  5. Which Dutch director has films on at the Festival?

Not forgetting the Military Tattoo

http://www.edintattoo.co.uk

  1. Where does the Tattoo happen?
  2. What time of day does it take place?
  3. What do you watch / What type of performance is it?

 

Write some more questions for other students to answer and send them (along with the answer!) to: webmaster@efllinks.freeservers.com

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