The name stuck. Today, the Edinburgh International Festival is one of the world's most prestigious arts gatherings, but the Fringe dwarfs it in terms of size. The millennium Fringe will see 17,000 performances. The Fringe is a myriad of shows, from breakfast with Shakespeare to late-night cabaret where a performer fires flares from his bum and do strange things with their body fluids. Experimentation is a watchword.
Experimentation is also a smoke screen for plain bad and talentless acts.
Picking winners, I think, is as hard as picking winners at the Grand National. One way of scoping the talent is using the online programme. However, nothing beats being there. For the duration of the festival, this steep cobbled thoroughfare is closed off to traffic and takes on a carnival atmosphere. You'll probably also be visiting the Fringe office on the High Street which is usually besieged by performers pulling bizarre publicity stunts and thrusting free tickets for their shows at unsuspecting pedestrians.