The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the International Festival have both had record breaking box offices in their 70th anniversary year. [...] Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: "This has been a very special year for the Fringe as we celebrated 70 years of defying the norm, 70 years of the greatest melting pot of arts and culture anywhere on the planet, and 70 years of Edinburgh as an internationally renowned festival city.

A Chinese production of Macbeth is being performed this week at the Edinburgh Festival, with the male/female roles having been reversed and ‘Lady Ma’ playing the protagonist. Incorporating martial arts and elements of Chinese theatre, this artistic merging of song and dance combines Chinese and Western drama through Cantonese opera.

A fully-equipped medical ship has set sail from Rosyth on an epic 6,600 mile transatlantic voyage to Peru. The Vine Trust's MV Forth Hope is heading to the remote Amazonian city of Iquitos in Peru where it will provide life-changing healthcare services to isolated and vulnerable communities.

More parts of the north-east will be dancing to an international beat this summer when a major festival spreads its influence further than ever. Musicians from 18 countries spread rights across the globe are due to arrive later this month as part of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF).

The organizers of one of the biggest draws at the Edinburgh festival, the military tattoo, are hoping to expand worldwide, eventually holding the event across Asia, the Middle East and North and South America. [...] The tattoo, which began in 1950 and is a charity, has become a showcase for British forces and their counterparts from around the world and been a sellout for the last two decades, attracting audiences of about 220,000 at the event and 100 million on television.