OMG – it’s my favourite time of year, the Edinburgh Fringe festival! I am so lucky to live in a city that descends into madness for almost all of August. Add to that the Edinburgh International Festival and Book Festival, and there really is something for everyone.
EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL FUN
Are you here and loving it?
EMBRACE IT ALL – and keep an eye out!
Twitter is a great place to find out about new acts plus giveaways / ticket competitions. One year, I found out about a show that wasn’t in the Edinburgh Fringe brochure. There were a few tweets about it, but no definitive instructions on the venue. Eventually, after taking a few wrong side streets I found the venue. The comedian was Luke McQueen and he was immense (offensively so). This year, I believe he’s performing under the name The Boy With Tape On His Face. If you like your comedians controversial, he’s for you!
HANG AROUND VENUES.
Sometimes you get given free tickets by venues / shows trying to fill seats if you’re in the surrounding vicinity. Quieter days (typically Mondays and Tuesdays) tend to be the best.
A rarer occurrence (but that really sums up the Festival spirit for me) is other festival goers giving you tickets. Many a time I’ve accidentally double booked, so have given my tickets away to the first nice people I’ve spotted (and there are a lot at this time of year!).
It’s worth noting that The Gilded Balloon do an Edinburgh residents £5 ticket offer on a Monday / Tuesday too!
KEEP IT LOCAL
Local magazines such as The List and The Skinny run competitions too. I won tickets to see Tim Minchin in 2005. A few days later, he won the Perrier Award and got all super famous and stuff.
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
Shows like Late’n’Live and Best of The Fest are great too, as they have a variety of acts performing shorter stints. If you opt for Late’n’live, it’s better to have a few drinks first. Most of the audience has had more than a few. Plus the performers.
TAKE A CHANCE
It ain’t easy plugging a show. I know it’s tempting to ignore the hordes of flyerers (is that a word?) but take time out to listen to what they have to say. I’ve seen some exceptional shows based on the back of people handing me flyers – almost exclusively, these were shows where the performers themselves have spoken to me.
SHOW SOME EDINBURGER LOVE
To show my love of Edinburgh and the punny name for its residents, I designed the Edinburger pin badge. This quirky gift makes the perfect Edinburgh Fringe memento for residents and visitors alike.
Show some #Edinburgerlove by picking up a pin! You can buy them from local Edinburgh shops Concrete Wardrobe and Ladyboss Collective while you’re in town, or you can buy online from my Etsy store.
Maybe it’s the air of Edinburgh Fringe enthusiasm that’s rubbing off on me – I’ve decided to do some spontaneous (and mysterious) Edinburger pin badge giveaways! These will be popping up over my social media accounts in the next few weeks. Be prepared.
ONE LAST THING
You’re still here? You’ve not gone to hang outside fringe venues already or trawl twitter?
Then YAY! You could be a winner! The first person to email me a joke (any joke, it doesn’t need to be a good one) will win an Edinburger pin badge! Just email me at kerry@kerrysdesign.com with the subject line ‘ I am an Edinburger’.