A group of eight theatre companies also arrived in town, unexpectedly, to put on their own shows. 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.