The Pancake Diaries

Features Editor Brigitte Phillips has set herself a challenge — to enter into filling her pancake-shaped void like she never has before. Tune in to see her hourly updates in meeting her challenge of consuming 24 pancakes over a 24 hour period.

12:30 am, Tuesday 17th February 2015

It is official, we are 30 minutes into Shrove Tuesday. For those of you unfamiliar with my dedication to pancakes, this it the most important day of my year (aside from Eurovision). A day set aside for demolishing as much as my favourite food as is possible. In 2013, I broke my previous record of 12 by eating 15 pancakes in one day. After a disappointing 2014 (a measly 12 pancakes), I am determined to eat more pancakes than I ever have before. I, of course, made the batter in advance to streamline the process.

After much deliberation, I decided to have my first set of pancakes just after midnight, rather than waiting ‘til morning. Before I had even gone to bed, I had consumed pancakes 1 and 2 of Shrove Tuesday 2015 (a pair of cheeky sugar crepes, not enough milk in the batter). I am eagerly looking forward to what the rest of this beautiful day will bring.

8:53 am

I am going to be out of the house from 10-6 today, so I have planned ahead. As well as the 4 honey pancakes (pretty much perfect if I do say so myself) I have prepared myself for breakfast, I have 5 back up crepes and an embarrassingly large pot of sugar to take into Uni with me. I’m going to smash this. Bring it on!

11:56 am

Pancakes 7-11. Cold, in tupperware, crepes accompanied with sugar. I don’t think I made enough. I’m so hungry. It’s not even 12 and I’m already on my 11th pancake. I am still trapped here for another 6 hours… what am I meant to do? Will I have to resort to Essentials? All I want is to eat as many pancakes as humanly possible, is that too much to ask?

1:19 pm

I cracked. I went to Essentials. 11 pancakes was just not enough to sustain me. Alas, when I got there, there were only the components of pancakes, rather than their final form. As we currently don’t have a hob or frying pan in The Gryphon office, I was unable to buy any ingredients. Dejected, I returned to the office with only Monster Munch and a fruit bar to see me through the next few hours. The tension is mounting now, will I still be able to achieve my goal despite the adversity? Only time will tell.

1:47 pm

Update: fruit bar had walnuts in. I’m allergic to walnuts. I will not let food poisoning get in the way of my dreams.

6:57 pm

After a long, busy day at Uni, it has come to 7pm and I still have 13 pancakes to go. Times are getting tense, I must stockpile while I can. Updates are soon to follow.

7:22 pm

Pancakes 12-16, a weird range of styles, I even made a square pancake! Lemon and sugar. I have reached my personal best, but can I hit 24 in 24 hours?

7:53 pm

The ‘dessert’ pancakes have been made, pancakes 17-20. These are dessert as they have cinnamon on as opposed to lemon. My goal is looking a whole lot more achievable now. What will this mean for the world when we discover my true pancake eating capabilities? I hope the world will be able to deal with one woman’s quest to eat 24 pancakes in one day.

8:36 pm

I have a headache, and it feels like I have about 5 tiny people punching me from the inside. Shooting for the stars just means a greater fall. I got too cocky, I was so sure of my pancake-eating ability. Will I be able to make it to the end? I feel so cold…

10:06 pm

I think I’m recovering, but if I am going to eat these last 4 I need to get my skates on. It is now time for the final lap, wish me luck!

10:55 pm

I have done it, the final four pancakes! Lemon and sugar, honey, maple syrup, and cinnamon and sugar. It’s been beautiful, everyone! The lesson I hope to take away is to always follow my dreams, and the sky is the limit. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t eat 24 pancakes in 22 hours, stare adversity right in the eyes, and then shove a crepe in your mouth. Thank you, each and every one of you, for following me on this journey! I now plan on not eating for the next few days.

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25th December: Just another winter’s day?

On the 1st December, when many people open their advent calendars, the countdown to Christmas has begun. Television adverts are Christmas themed, shop music plays Christmas hits and Christmas jumpers are proudly on display. However only 60% of the population of the United Kingdom are Christian. The Gryphon investigates what Christmas means for the remaining 40% of the country.

I am by no means Christian, but yet here I sit typing this article, donning an ugly Christmas jumper and sparkly gold lipstick. My premature excitement isn’t caused by the thrill of celebrating Christ’s birth, but is more symptomatic of the rampant commercialisation of Christianity’s premier holiday. I revel in the German markets, a piece of chocolate every day, and presents under the tree on Christmas Day, but violently resist Midnight Mass with every fibre of my being. Who’d have thought that a socialist like me would revel in so much capitalism?

Although Christmas seems like an almost irreplaceable part of British winter traditions, it has not always been at the forefront of our calendar. Despite the 13 year ban on Christmas during Britain’s brief stint as a republic, Christmas wasn’t really celebrated in the manner we know it today until Queen Victoria’s reign. It wasn’t until this era that trees, greetings cards and turkey dinners were introduced into our Christmas celebrations.

However, while I still celebrate Christmas, there are millions of people across the country – either atheist or of non-Christian religion – for whom Christmas day will be nothing more than another winter Thursday. When mince pies, carol services, and the Doctor Who Christmas Special are as much a part of British culture as tea and imperialism, is it intimidating or excluding to be surrounded by something you’re not a part of? Zayd Rehman, Vice President of LUU ISoc, thinks not. ‘I don’t feel excluded, in fact its quite the opposite.’ Zayd continues, ‘It’s always fun to see the Christmas lights going up and hearing the Christmas songs on the radio. I associate it with winter, holidays and general merriment!’ He concedes, however, that there are downsides to being a Muslim at this time of year, ‘… admittedly it does start to get a little tiresome closer to Christmas time itself, but I wouldn’t say I feel excluded.’ We also spoke to Max Sherrard, president of JSoc, who had this to say, ‘I don’t really feel intimidated but I suppose it’s just something I never really thought about. Maybe Christmas has been commercialised to the extent that it is no longer a religious holiday as much as a national festive season; so the celebration is similar to Thanksgiving in the US, Guy Fawkes Night in the UK or New Year’s Eve.’

While many non-Christians celebrate Christmas in some small way, whether it be eating a Christmas dinner or watching the Queen’s Speech, this isn’t the case for Zayd. ‘Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are essentially regular evenings and days for me. I don’t really do anything for them, but there’s always nice stuff to watch on TV!’ Max also has a fairly low key day, ‘On Christmas day we, as a family, gather together and just simply have a family day, be it go for a walk, chill at home, have other families round for tea or have our extended family round for a big meal.’

But do people who don’t celebrate Christmas buy presents for people who do? ‘I never buy people Christmas presents’ says Max. ‘As a Jew we celebrate Chanukah at a similar time, and as custom we give presents on each night of Chanukah. Our equivalent of Secret Santa is Mystery Maccabee’. Zayd also rarely buys people Christmas gifts, ‘I don’t normally buy Christmas presents other than maybe a box of chocolates, but I do give Christmas cards most of the time to my friends celebrating Christmas.’ However, he still gets stuck in with some Christmas festivities, ‘I get involved in Secret Santas, sometimes Mum makes a Christmas themed dinner, sometimes we listen to the Christmas songs on the TV. We never really exchange gifts between ourselves though, or go to the mosque.’ Max comments on his involvement with Christmas festivities, ‘Getting involved in festive things, such as Christmas markets, I suppose comes down to the commercialisation of everything. Also it is somewhat hard to not get involved in all the Christmas sales, festive markets, seasonal food menus in bars, etc.’

When asked about the possible commercialisation of Islamic religious holidays, Zayd expressed doubt, ‘As much as I would love to see adverts on TV for Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr, it wouldn’t really be practical as their dates differ from year to year between countries. This is because Islam follows a lunar calendar and the date of both Eids is purely dependent on the position of the moon in your area.’ However, Max sees a possibility in the commercialisation of Jewish religious holidays, ‘I suppose we could have some of our festivals commercialised, but that is because there is a lot of symbolism around them. Family time and community are central to our festivals, and so in a similar way to Christmas being a day for families to get together, Chanukah could -together with the tradition of present giving- be commercialised.’

A notable exception of Christians celebrating Christmas is Jehovah’s Witnesses, who abstain from Christmas festivities due to the holiday’s origins in pagan traditions. Our Jehovah’s Witness source says that while she isn’t intimidated or offended by the Christmassy imagery around this time of year, that she does feel like it is far too over commercialised. However, she does admit that she would buy presents in the January sales for her children if they felt left out of the celebrations.

In many ways, Christmas is about as secular as Christianity can be. Even the staunchest athiests will celebrate with their loved ones around the winter solstice. Richard Dawkins himself has even admitted to breaking out into a carol or two around this time of year,

So it appears that regardless of beliefs, the 25th December is a good excuse to eat copious amounts of food and spend time with family. With Christmas Day and Boxing Day being Bank Holidays, almost everyone is off from work and school, and if you have no major religious holiday to celebrate, you may as well use these days to reconnect with loved ones. However, the pure saturation of Christmassy things for practically the whole month of December comes at a price. Are the endless parades of sales, Christmas markets, and premature decorations devaluing one of the most significant days in the Christian calendar?

Christmas Day may well be being ‘devalued’ as a religious holiday, but maybe we should be considering how non-Christians feel about it? I propose that we should only start being worried once the Christmas juggernaut starts erasing other religion’s and culture’s traditions. Despite the excess of Christmas spirit, non-Christians remain unintimdated by the mid-winter capitalist behemoth, and that can only be a good thing.

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Features Editor Brigitte Phillips Gets the Chop!

It has finally happened, something I have been building up to for well over a year, I cut off all my hair. Well, not exactly all of it, but a significant chunk of it. My long hair has always been an integral part of my identity for as long as I can remember, and now it’s completely different to how it has ever been before. But this new look of mine isn’t in the aid of fashion or preference, I have donated approximately 10 inches of my hair to a charity that makes wigs for children who have lost their hair.

I first got the idea over a year and a half ago, when singer Jessie J donated her hair to The Little Princess Trust after cutting it live on Comic Relief. This nucleus of an idea was solidified during a craze that swept the internet after actress Shailene Woodley cut her hair for the role of Hazel Grace in The Fault In Our Stars. While I still have not seen the film, I thought that Shailene’s idea to donate her long her to charity was really admirable, and I decided to do the same.

This was a pretty big step for me, as I’ve always had a strong attachment to my trademark long hair. It’s been one of my only features that I’ve been consistently proud of over the years, and I have drawn a lot of my confidence from it. When things got hard, I could always hide behind it. If I were to have lost it when I was a child, it would have been devastating, and probably incredibly traumatic.

Now I’m 21, and while the emotional connection to my hair is just as strong, I have realised that there are some people out there who need my hair more than I do. This is why I decided to donate my hair to The Little Princess Trust. They give human hair wigs to children all over the UK that have lost their hair due to cancer treatment, alopecia, and other conditions. The Little Princess Trust tailor-make the wigs for each child, in order to minimalise trauma and leave the wig looking as similar as possible to the original hair.

The Little Princess Trust was launched in 2006 by Wendy and Simon Tarplee, who had lost their daughter Hannah to cancer just the year before. During Hannah’s battle with cancer, they realised how difficult it was to find high quality wigs for children, and only found a suitable supplier (which has now become one of the suppliers for the charity) after a long search. Due to the difficulty in obtaining a wig for Hannah, her parents set up the charity after her death, so that high quality children’s wigs could be more accessible in years to come.

If I were to have lost my hair when I was a child, it would have been devastating, and probably incredibly traumatic.

After researching the charity, I decided that it would be the perfect way for me to help children in desperate need of hair. However, I didn’t feel like giving my hair was quite enough, I also wanted to do some fundraising for the charity itself. As there is a great need for wigs at the Little Princess Trust, they often have to buy wigs from their suppliers in order to fulfil the demand. However, these wigs don’t come cheap, and can often cost as much as £350 each.

Being an impoverished student, I originally set my JustGiving target as £100, expecting that to be a very modest and achievable goal for Student Finance-starved pockets. What I didn’t anticipate was that my target would be smashed within 18 hours of the page going live. So I doubled my target to £200, which was met even quicker. For the next 2 months, I watched the money roll in, until I had raised almost £500. I was completely astonished and thankful for the generosity of my family and friends, but I still felt like I was able to do more. With just one week to go until the Big Chop, I upped my goal to a whopping £700, enough to buy two extra wigs on top of my hair donation. While the donations have slowly been trickling in, there is still a way to go.

In the meantime, in a bid to boost the charity funds, I organised a fundraiser to coincide with my 21st birthday, which would culminate in the Big Chop itself. What originally started as an intimate celebration of the charity and the anniversary of my birth spiralled out into a hairdressing bake sale with a live band and a make-shift photo booth! There goes my plans of having a quiet Thursday night in.

But through all this, I have still been battling with my childish emotional attachment to my hair. Despite the fact that I have been resolved on the chop for a very long time, as the date draws closer I become more and more aware of the decision I’m making. But ultimately, I always come around, and remember why I’m doing it; for the children who would have been just like me at that age, devastated at the loss of their favourite part of themselves, their confidence, their identity. They really need my hair more than I do.

I am still just £70 short of my target; if any of you would like to donate to this wonderful cause, please feel free to go to www.justgiving.com/Brigitte-Phillips, and contribute what you can!

Brigitte Phillips

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Sam Pepper Exposed

There’s something wicked in the state of YouTube. Those of you who have spent any time on the website on the past year or so will know the problem. Starting with Ed Blann (Eddplant) in Summer 2013, at least 5 prominent members of the British YouTube community have been outed as sexual and emotional abusers, with many pressuring fans and underage girls into performing sexual acts. With this many incidents of sexual abuse being revealed in the past 14 months, it is clear to see that it’s a serious problem in the online video community.

One of the most recent outings has been Sam Pepper, although his apparent disrespect for women has hardly been kept a secret, his past videos include “How To Get A Girlfriend Easy”, in which he handcuffed himself to unsuspecting women and told them that they are ‘[his] girlfriend now’ (even forcing one woman to kiss him in order for him to remove the handcuffs), and ‘How to Pick Up Girls With a Lasso’, which pretty much does what it says on the tin. Despite the women involved in these videos looking clearly distressed, comparatively little was done about it in the YouTube community until one of Sam’s more recent videos ‘Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank’ was uploaded. This ‘prank’ featured Pepper wearing a fake arm to fool women he groped with his real hand into thinking the sexual harassment was being perpetrated by innocent passersby. Many of the women angrily confronted him with one woman telling him, ‘I don’t like that’. However, despite her protestations, he laughed and continued to grope her.

Understandably, the YouTube and wider internet community was in uproar when ‘Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank’ was published, resulting in an open letter from prominent sex education YouTuber Laci Green. This open letter has now been cosigned by numerous heavyweights in the online video community, such as the vlogbrothers, Tyler Oakley, and Grace Helbig.

Following the open letter, Pepper went on to upload a ‘second part’ of his video series, in which women groped men, and a final video explaining that the previous two had merely been ‘social experiments’ that had been staged and scripted to highlight domestic violence. However, several women featured in the first video have since come forward on twitter and revealed that prior consent wasn’t obtained before filming.

While Sam Pepper’s videos grabbed media attention, his response to Laci Green’s open letter was kept under wraps.

While Pepper claimed that his emails had been hacked, it appears that this isn’t the first time that he has sent inappropriate messages to women. The Gryphon speaks to Emily* about her experience with Sam Pepper:

I was a fan of Sam at the time, it was 2012 and he’d just started a business selling his own hats. He put a status on his Facebook asking for girls to send pictures to his email address to be considered to model the hats on the website. The website already had photos of a girl wearing underwear and some of his hats.

I thought I’d email some photos, thinking nothing would come of it and, that there’d be dozens of professional models emailing him photos. He emailed back straight away, asking me to take photos in my underwear “like the girl on the website”. I assumed that that would be the brief the model would be given, and that he was talking on a professional level. I was in two minds about it, half-thinking that it could be professional, but part of me didn’t trust him. I told him that I didn’t trust him with underwear photos, and told him that I thought that he might post them to his Facebook and slut-shame me or something. He said “I won’t” and then asked for my skype. The part of me that was a fan of him was quite keen on talking to him on skype, but it just seemed dodgy. I told him I didn’t trust him with photos and he said “I won’t trust me. I want them DIRTY.”

He then proceeded to keep asking me for dirty photos. I said “I’m not gonna do it, obviously” and he said “fair enough. This could have been fun” Partly due to his fame, and partly due to the fact I was still his fan, I didn’t want the conversation to end there. So I asked him if he was doing any fan meet ups soon and if I could have a hug at one. He said “no hugs for you, you’ve not been nice.”

It made me feel pressured to send him dirty pictures, otherwise he wouldn’t like me; being a fan of his, I didn’t want that. I think famous people have power over their fans, they idolise them. I think he was using that power to his own advantage and not thinking about anybody else’s feelings, he got caught up in fame and his power.

I posted the screenshots to Facebook because I found the whole situation a bit unbelievable and laughable. Then I had three of my friends saying that he’d done the same thing to them, one where he’d asked for photos, one where he’d told her she was cute (she was underage), and one where the girl messaged me to warn me off him, because she’d had personal experience of physical relations with him, and she said he “uses girls” and that he only spoke to her when he wanted sex.

As of then, I’ve seen him in a different light to how I did before, I’ve been wary of him ever since. I watched his videos to observe his behaviour, not as entertainment. As soon as I saw the lasso videos, I felt uncomfortable and extremely sorry for the girls in the situation. Imagine feeling a rope around you completely unexpected? You’d feel like you were being kidnapped. I thought it was inappropriate, but since it was labeled as a prank and most people seemed to find it funny, I thought I was just being sensitive and kept my feelings to myself.

I think that that is part of the problem of the power famous people have. You feel as if you can’t say bad things about them. You follow them completely blindly. I’ve read what some of his supporters are saying on twitter. Like “oh Sam, I’d let you assault me” and I think that they’re so blinded by it all that they can’t think straight. Celebrities shouldn’t use their fame in this way, they shouldn’t use it to get people to do whatever they say, they should use it to change the world. People listen to their every word, they could make such a difference. But instead, he seems to use it to make girls do what he wants. I think that he’s lost sight of himself. He needs to look in the mirror and bring himself back to humanity, and think about other people’s feelings. I think that goes for any celebrity,they have followers. and should inspire them in a positive way, not use them and then throw them away once they’re done with them.

In my opinion, the way he’s trying to cover up it all is him panicking, hoping he can make things right for himself again. He knows he’s done something wrong. But he’s chose the wrong path and tried to get out of it by lying and acting like nothing has happened, pretending that he was in the right all along. I feel sorry for him, because he’s got himself into a difficult situation, and saying sorry is so incredibly hard, but it was the right thing to do, and I don’t think he was strong enough to come out with it. I don’t think he quite knows what it’s like to get hurt and used. I feel like I’d have so much more respect for him if he’d just said “Sorry.” And I hope that he gets the strength to do that, rethink his life choices, and move on.

I think that it’s important for people to not keep quiet about any opinion they have, I think if something makes you uncomfortable, you should voice your opinion, because there will be other people who think the same way as you that have also been too scared to say anything. And you can make a difference to the way things are if you’re strong enough to say what you feel. It’s a domino effect and I think that’s exactly what has happened with Sam. One person has had the strength to say he was being inappropriate, and other people have followed. And that’s why everybody is coming out with stories about him now. Power in numbers. Not because they all want fame or are attention-seeking. Because they were too scared to do so beforehand.

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9/11 Survivor: ‘I thought it was the end of the world, that’s what it felt like’

Thirteen years on, the events surrounding the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center still affect us today. The Gryphon spoke to Ian Robb, Leeds Graduate and 9/11 survivor, about his experience.

On the evening of the 10th September, Robb had a meal with colleagues in the city, but the dinner didn’t finish until fairly late. He fell asleep in the taxi home to New Jersey, and didn’t get home until 1.30am. ‘I set the alarm, it went off in the morning and I had slept right through it,’ said Ian Robb. ‘I was always very fussy about getting to the office early, I’d like to get there at around7.30am.’

After the late start, and a delayed train, Robb arrived at the World Trade Center over an hour later than usual. He narrowly missed catching an elevator to the 99th floor of the North Tower, where he worked at the time; this saved his life. ‘I waited for the next one and about six of us got into it, the doors closed and that’s when everything started to happen. There was a tremendous vibration, the whole lift was shaking wildly and there was a rushing of wind sound all around us.’

‘We were all pretty terrified,’ said Robb, ‘I thought it was the end of the world, that’s what it felt like. It stopped after what seemed like 10 minutes but was probably no more than 15 seconds. We were all down on the floor cowering at that point wondering what was going to happen next. We could hear things dropping onto the lift, and dust was coming in through the doors. After it stopped, we dusted ourselves off and could hear the alarm bells ringing, some of us thought there was something wrong with the lift.’ The passengers tried unsuccessfully to reach someone from the outside world. ‘We waited and waited, we kept yelling and banging on the door and pressing buttons but nothing happened at all.’

‘After an hour or so, the noise above was increasing. We could still hear all this rubble falling. As we were banging, rubble started falling from the top of the door and it seemed to be jamming the door mechanism, because we were able to get our fingers inbetween the doors and pull them apart. We were in the lobby again, we had no idea how we got there. We may have gone up or gone down, we’ll never know.’

The elevator passengers were told by security that there had been a terrorist attack, and that they had to evacuate the building immediately. ‘We had to run across the lobby to an escalator that took us up to the Plaza level. The plaza level was between the two towers, probably four or five storeys of marble and glass, quite a beautiful place. The windows were all red, I hadn’t realized that the red was blood. The outside was just a battlefield; bits of bodies, bits of everything lying around. We ran out of the building and heard this huge roar, I looked up it came from the fire on the top of the building where my office was.’

‘Then the South tower began to collapse. There was a dreadful rumble, dust and rubble falling everywhere so we ran. I was on my own, I didn’t know where everyone was at that point. I ran towards the ferry and jumped on just as it was leaving the dock. It pulled out into the river and I just watched this tower collapse behind us. Later I managed to watch it on television and think, “my goodness, that was where I was”’.

‘I lost a lot of friends and acquaintances, something like 360 people from the company that I was with, killed. Everybody above where the planes hit at around the 93rd floor was killed, including all the people who worked on my floor who were in the office that day. One of the fellows who I’d been out with for dinner the night before was also lost. I think about them still, I think about them rather than the incident, because they were very close friends and colleagues.

‘The next day, I managed to get a hold of people in the main office, which was in midtown Manhattan, and they thought I was lost. I got to the office and there was a whole list of people who were dead, and my name was on it.’

When asked about the biggest change in post-9/11 America, Ian Robb had this to say, ‘The most lasting change has been much tighter security, on planes in particular. The events since have increased animosity towards those who might be likely to be terrorist. Immediately afterwards there was a dreadful backlash against Muslims which really irritated me, but I suppose people were just lashing out. But in New York itself, oddly enough, it was a great city to be in the weeks afterwards. People’s attitudes towards one another were ones of helpfulness, graciousness.

We asked Robb who he thought was to blame for the rise in Islamophobia after 9/11, the media, politicians or the general public? ‘I think the answer is yes to all those. My personal view for what it’s worth, I think if America and probably the West as a whole has been a little more forceful about trying to engage some of the more fractious Islamic countries in dialogue, it might not have come to that’.

Despite all he went through, Ian doesn’t see life any differently after escaping death, ‘I’m a spiritual person but not a religious person. I put my escape down to good fortune, but I don’t think it’s changed at all. In fact, one of my immediate responses to the tragedy was one of determination not to be negatively affected. People say to me ‘oh you probably won’t go on a plane again’, I say I’ll go on a plane as soon as possible. I’ll go in a lift as soon as possible. I am not to let the terrorists think they’ve won.’

Abla Klaa and Brigitte Phillips

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Pulling up the curtain: Behind the scenes of the Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is one of the most important cultural events in the United Kingdom, a behemoth that almost completely takes over the city for the month of August, and features some of the biggest names in entertainment. However, what we often forget while watching endless Culture Show coverage of the event is that Edinburgh’s population of nearly half a million people pretty much doubles for three and a half weeks of the summer. The festival has a massive impact on the residents of Scotland’s capital, but is this largely positive or negative? As the festival draws to its conclusion, LS asks the students and residents of Edinburgh for their views.

If you’ve never been to the festival, let us paint a picture for you: crowds of people who will do anything either to give you a flyer or avoid taking a flyer, food vans and places to drink dotted everywhere, and a constant bustling expectation to witness the next fantastic production. The Edinburgh Fringe collects an eclectic combination of acts: Comedy, drama, cabaret and spoken word; mixing amateur performers with big names. Whilst the festival has come into criticism for its commercialisation (some of the big comedians expect £18 a ticket), access to free shows like the ones involved in PBS’s Free Fringe allow easy access to performances, meaning the Fringe continues to be loved by tourists and participants alike.

One thing you can take from the Edinburgh Fringe, as a visiting admirer, is the distinctive ‘festival atmosphere’ it possesses. This is not just a dull, dragged-out event; it’s a conventional yet diverse answer to a countrywide craving for culture. This atmosphere can’t quite be described as transient, as the festival lasts up to a month, yet there is something notably passing about its feeling. The intense number of people, the pop up food outlets, the crowds of performers and artists – they all add to a sense that this has to end.

Inevitably, this impermanence sits awkwardly with those who have to regularly get up and trudge to work, having to avoid being leafleted for dear life. Douglas Grant, a resident of Edinburgh, explains that “It’s obviously frustrating for people traipsing to work through crowds of tourists…some residents sing its praises when they’re in the mood for a show, but grumble about it the next day when they actually have to go get something done.”

But how does it fare for students, who may not have to study or go to work during the festival? Hazel, a third year Biomedical Sciences student at the University of Edinburgh says, “I think the most positive change is actually the atmosphere; the whole place is buzzing and the festival has an air of friendliness”.  Josh, a fourth year Environmental Geoscience student who has lived in the city his whole life, agrees, “The atmosphere is improved hugely during [The Edinburgh Festival] too. It is exciting during ‘Fringe’ time.”

However, Gage (a 3rd Year Chemist at Heriott-Watt University) admits that it can be a mixed bag, saying, “The atmosphere depends on where you are and what your mood is; it can seem hectic and a pain, or a lot more vibrant.”

All three students interviewed agree that the Edinburgh Festival has a largely positive impact on the city as a whole. Josh suggests “something that brings that much tourism can only be good.” Gage agrees, citing that “Edinburgh becomes a kind of cultural hub for that period of time in the sort of way you don’t see much outside of London in the UK.”

While there appears to be several pitfalls to living in the city during the festival – the price, the crowds, the attitude that “the city pops up every August and then sinks back into oblivion when the crowds are gone” as Doug suggests – the overwhelming feeling seems to be positive.  Even if the residents had a problem, it’s hard to argue with the economic boost the Fringe brings to the city. The festival itself has been found to contribute alone a massive £142million over the month, whilst widening access to the arts and contributing to a strong national identity. With its unique standing as one of the most culturally diverse events in Britain today, Edinburgh fringe seems to have, for now, won the votes of its residents.

Ruby Lott-Lavigna and Brigitte Phillips

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Days Out in the Dales

Are you in Leeds over the summer? Need to get out of the city for a while? Do you want to do all this without breaking the (very measly, student finance fueled) bank? Well LS may well have the answer for you. In Leeds, we are very lucky to have extraordinarily beautiful countryside within a stone’s throw: The Yorkshire Dales. The Dales can provide anything from scenic moorland walks to picturesque town visits, and its natural beauty has very recently been featured as a very important part of the opening stages of the Tour de France 2014. This guide will tell you how to benefit from this gorgeous National Park and the surrounding areas on a student budget.

Getting There

Thankfully, it isn’t too difficult to get to the Yorkshire Dales from Leeds, and there is a multitude of public transport options available for those of us without cars. By booking your train the day before, you can get a return to Skipton for £6.15, or to Ilkley for £3.90 with a 16-25 Railcard. You can also get to Ilkley and Skipton on the X84 bus, or to Harrogate and Ripon on the 36, and go further into the Dales on local bus services. Additionally, on Sundays and Bank Holidays, DalesBus offers a Student Dales Rover all-day pass for just £5, which covers most DalesBus services.

The Cow & Calf Rocks, Ilkley Moor

Although the beginning of the walk is 30 minutes away from Ilkley Rail Station, the complete trek around the rocks only takes about an hour, and the journey is well worth it. All you Monty Python fans out there may recognise this rock formation, as they have featured heavily in their works! As well as the rocks themselves, the walk takes you through the famous Ilkley Moor, the subject of Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem.

Bolton Abbey and Strid Wood

Bolton Abbey is a ruined 12th century monastery surrounded by 30,000 acres of countryside, including 80 miles of paths and 6 areas of special scientific interest (Strid Wood being one of these). Bolton Abbey can be accessed by bus from Ilkley on the 74, and 75 on Saturdays; however Strid Wood can only be accessed by bus on Sundays and Bank Holidays via the 843 route. To sweeten the deal, entry to the Priory and grounds is free to those who have travelled on public transport. Strid Wood is home to a wide variety of plant species, and is one of the best places to see birdlife in the Yorkshire Dales.

Harrogate

For those of you who aren’t so keen on the whole “nature” thing, there is always the option of visiting one of the many picturesque towns and villages throughout the area, with the most convenient of these being Harrogate in North Yorkshire. As well as the usual shopping experience you might expect, there are also several parks that you could eat a picnic in on a sunny day. If you’re feeling particularly cultured, there is the Mercer Art Gallery, and the Royal Pump Room for those interested in learning more about Harrogate’s history as a spa town. You could also visit the original Betty’s Tea Room if you happen to be the sort of person who enjoys spending extortionate amounts of money on biscuits and queueing.

There are many more places that you can get to in the countryside surrounding Leeds, and if any of the places above aren’t taking your fancy, then make sure to check out the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority website for further ideas!

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