Morning Briefing: Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival gets under way Jazz musicians are kick-starting the capital's run of festivals with performances starting across the city today. The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival runs for the next 10 days, with around 70 artists playing at 14 venues. A free Mardi Gras event is at the Grassmarket on Saturday and a festival carnival will parade the city centre on Sunday. The carnival replaces the usual opening cavalcade and marks the start of festival season in the city. Performing in Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens, musicians, dancers and street entertainers will tour a circuit. The programme line-up includes Dr John, veteran New Orleans musician, and the only UK performance by The Manhattan Transfer. Kyle Eastwood, son of actor and director Clint Eastwood, also performs with his band. Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish a blaze in a building in the centre of Edinburgh At the height of the incident 60 officers were battling the large fire that broke out in a four-storey building in Hanover Street at around 3.30pm yesterday. A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue said an appliance was standing by through the night and officers would continue to extinguish "small pockets of fire." A meeting with be held in the morning with council services and building contractors to assess the extent of the damage in daylight. It was initially thought the blaze broke out in a Thomas Cook shop on the ground floor of the building before spreading up to the roof. The spokesman said officers were investigating exactly where the fire started as a a two-storey outhouse at the rear of the travel agent had also been on fire. He said: "It's unclear if the fire may have started there and spread to the Thomas Cook shop. There was a lot of smoke gathered in the shop and officers entered through it but investigations are continuing to establish the starting point. The shop and surrounding properties were evacuated and no injuries were reported. Traffic diversions remain in place at the scene with routes on nearby Princes Street and George Street affected.