The city and its festivals: your comments

Author Mark Fisher with a backdrop of Edinburgh Castle

Welcome to the greatest show on Earth

IN THIS chapter of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, we discover the incredible scale of the festivals that take over Edinburgh during August, not only the Edinburgh Festival Fringe itself, but several more besides. 

Fringe regulars such as New York director John Clancy, Montreal producer Sarah Rogers and Assembly boss William Burdett-Coutts explain what it feels like to stage a show in such an enormous event and how you start to get your head around it all.

We then go back in time to the origins of the world's biggest arts festival and take a look at how it grew to the thrilling event it is today. Comedian Ed Byrne talks about how compelling the Fringe is, while international directors such as Toby Gough emphasise its global importance.

After that, there's just time for a quick bit of orientation in the beautiful Scottish capital, then we're ready to go . . .

If you have comments about this chapter of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, please add them below.