Edinburgh Festival Insider - Venue of the year 2009

With 100s of venues across the city - from the 'big three' of the Assembly, Pleasance and Gilded Balloon to the likes of private residences and restaurants - there's almost as wide a choice of places to see shows as there are performances to enjoy.

The nominations for the Edinburgh Festival Insider Venue of the Year Award 2009 are:

• C Venues. Particularly the multi-levelled labyrinth in Chambers Street, culminating in the wonderful Urban Garden. A great place to hang out and mingle with performers who keep the spirit of the Fringe alive.
• Venue 150 at the EICC. With its air-conditioning, ample legroom and modern decor, this feels far removed from many of the hot, cramped and crumbling venues elsewhere.
• St George's West. Few things can compare to witnessing some world-class music being performed in front of St George's beautiful stained-glass rose window.
• Spaces venues. Played host to some small first-time groups on a budget and therefore brought some interesting - and in the case of productions like Stitches, exceptional - new talent to the Fringe
  
• New Town Theatre / Universal Arts. A wonderfully diverse programme in the grand and only slightly spooky Masonic Hall on George Street.

And the winner is...

Venue 150 at the EICC

Although the EICC has been used as a Fringe venue in the past, this year it featured a far wider and more adventurous programme than ever. With close ties to Universal Arts and The World Festival, it saw two amazing world music shows, the wonderful Sambor Dudzinksi and his Time(less) Machine, Fred MacAulay's daily breakfast show, Fringe Select, a great cafe and more.
Besides its aforementioned comfort, its willingness to take a little bit of a risk results in it being my favourite venue this year - especially as its success during the Fringe could see more and more shows of a similar ilk being featured there outwith the Festival season.

For a resident like me, the chance of that is enough for me to give Venue 150 the:

Review: Havana Rumba - The Hottest Cuban Salsa Party in Town! ****

With its roots in slavery and evolved via the self-made entertainment of its poverty-stricken population, Cuban dance is sensual, rhythmic, provocative and joyous. In Havana Rumba, we are treated to it in all its booty-shaking glory, courtesy of an energetic and athletic cast of dancers and a fantastic live band.

In quasi-musical fashion, a story underpins the fantastic set-pieces, telling the tale of Ramon, the "king of rumba", and his son Papito, who wishes to escape his surroundings and take his music to the world. This allows the cast & band to create some wonderfully uplifting and at times amusing numbers, such as the superbly choreographed mating dances, or a standout acapella song about pizza (trust me, this works perfectly in context).

The dances' sensual nature is underlined by the attractive and lithe cast, who seem to wear a succession of ever-smaller outfits as the action moves from Cuba's townships, dancehalls and beaches and then on to Miami. And although hotpant-clad booties are shaken at every opportunity with gleeful abandon, this is a family friendly show - there's nothing here the kids won't have seen before on any Beyonce or Kylie video.

The music deserves at least equal mention to the dance, performed by a talented nine-piece band with an infectious style and enthusiasm. Particular mention has to go to 70-year old Jose Castro, a fantastic singer who also possesses moves that woud put those half / third / quarter his age to shame. During the well-deserved rests and wardrobe changes of the dancers, he appears and immediately transports us to cigar smoke-filled nightclubs and backstreets with writhing rhythms and hip-shaking tunes.

An uplifting and hugely enjoyable show, Havana Rumba deserves packed houses at the EICC and is guaranteed to send you out into the evening with your heart still beating to the rhythm of the rumba.

Havana Rumba runs until August 30th at the EICC. £15 (£12 concession)