The Edinburgh Festival Fringe started life in 1947 as an accessible alternative to the more highbrow Edinburgh International Festival. Over the years the Fringe has grow to become larger and better known than its more formal cousin: and it has also served as the launch-pad of most of the great names in British comedy.

What is the Fringe? Anything and everything you could possibly imagine. You get a snapshot of what's on offer simply by strolling along the High Street, the upper part of the Royal Mile, while the Fringe is on. Here you find a wide variety of street entertainers including contortionists; acrobats; sword swallowers; fire jugglers; statue-impersonators; musicians; and others.

Here, too, you start to get an impression of the off-street activity across a huge number of venues from the throng of performers promoting their shows, whether by handing out leaflets, posting them on the advertising poles (which end the festival much wider than they begin it) or through extemporised street theatre designed to attract attention and customers.

A stroll along the High Street is also all you need to begin to appreciate the wonderful atmosphere that pervades Edinburgh through the festival period, much of it down to the activities of those involved in the Fringe.

Fringe 2006 runs from 6 August 2006 to 28 August 2006. More information is available from their website. A few statistics about Fringe 2005 give an impression of what the event has now become:

• Fringe 2005 included 26,995 performances of 1,800 shows in 247 venues.
  

• A total of 16,190 performers were on Edinburgh’s Fringe stages during Fringe 2005, that's more people than athletes who participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics (10,000).
  

• Theatre was the most popular art form with 653 shows or 37% of the total, followed by Comedy with 22%, then Music with 21%. Children’s Shows, Dance & Physical Theatre, Events, Exhibitions and Musicals each made up 5% of the 2005 programme.
  

• A third of all shows were World Premieres. 8% were UK premieres, 6% European Premieres.
  

• 167 shows at Fringe 2005 were absolutely free.
  

• In 2005, more than one and a quarter million tickets were sold.
  

• It would have taken 5 years 3 months and 25 days to see every performance in Fringe 2005 back-to-back.
  

• The Fringe has a 75% market share of all attendances at Edinburgh’s year-round festivals.
  

• The Fringe's on-line ticketing operations, on http://www.edfringe.com/, fulfils over 44% of the Fringe’s sales, making it one of the most successful Arts web sites in the UK.

Possibly the most sobering of these statistics is that at Fringe 2006 you will have just 23 days to enjoy shows that would take over five years to view in their entirety. You cannot possibly hope to see more than a tiny fraction of what is on offer in the time available, even if you avoid sleeping, eating, drinking or taking in any of the attractions of the other festivals on in the city at the same time.

There are two ways to tackle this. The first is to plan everything rigorously, working your way through programmes and booking tickets well in advance. The second is simply to play it by ear, seeing whatever takes your fancy as you wander the streets of Edinburgh.

The approach you choose is a matter of personality and taste: though you are strongly advised to make sure you book your accommodation as early as possible. Beds in and around Edinburgh can be hard to come by over the Festival period...

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