In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an intemational festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
1947年，一群来自艺术界，由一位奥地利指挥家领衔的名人决定在爱丁堡举办一次国际音乐、舞蹈和戏剧节，当时的想法是要在第二次世界大战后重新统一欧洲。

At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947,in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform,and they did so in a public house disused for years.
同时，这个“艺穗节”似乎是对官方节日的挑战。1947年，有八个剧团不请自来，他们认为每个人都应该有表演的权利，他们在一个废弃多年的公共场所表演。

Soon,groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
很快，一批批大学生——最初是爱丁堡大学，后来是牛津、剑桥、达勒姆和伯明翰大学——每年夏天都会前往苏格兰首府，在小教堂大厅为爱丁堡人民表演鲜为人知的戏剧作家的戏剧。

Today the “Fringe”,once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing,some said it was getting too big.
如今，曾经不太为人所知的“艺穗节”已经远远超出了节日本身，21天时间里，每天都有1500场戏剧、音乐和舞蹈表演。然而早在1959年，只有19个剧团演出时，就有人说它规模太大了。

A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.
1971年才首次雇用了一名带薪管理员，如今，有8名管理员全年工作，8月期间这一数字上升到150人。2004年，有200个地方举办了来自50个不同国家的600多个不同团体的1695场演出，门票售出超过125万张。