Edinburgh Fringe 2011

Location: Edinburgh

Greetings from the Edinburgh Fringe! As this years festival wraps up I thought I would post an entry on my time up here.

I returned this year to Pleasance, following a fun 2010 Fringe. I am working as crew in the Pleasance Courtyard again this year, which is fantastic because it is such a vibrant busy venue, but it also rains on the poor staff almost constantly!

We have some fantastic acts in my specific venue (The Hut) including sketch group Sheeps and Fosters Newcomer Nominee Josh Widdicombe. Both acts have enjoyed excellent audience numbers, which means we rarely fit people in on staff/company passes (if you got in, count yourself lucky!) We also have comics Henry Paker and Benny Boot, who give fantastic performances and are joy to watch (if I can say that after watching these shows every other day as part of my work, you know its a good show).

Aside from the great program of stand up we have two more very different shows. Cry of the Mountain is a gorgeous verbatim piece about mountaintop removal delivered by one artist accompanied by a very talented banjo player. We open the house everyday to the sound of Max playing and I can reveal that tearing tickets to the sound of fast banjo is a massive motivator - I work at double my speed! I may do everything to banjo from now on.

But we always start our day with The Thinking Drinker's Guide to Alcohol, which involves the preparation and distribution of some 300 samples of very fancy, very expensive spirits. Very swish but if you spill a measure of absinthe down yourself (and by yourself I mean MYself) then you will stink of said absinthe all day long. Not a good impression to the general public. If Ben and Tom, the people behind the show weren't so lovely it would be a tough job.

We have 3 more days of shows followed by a further 2 of get-out then it is homeward bound for me. I am personally very excited at the prospect of a regular sleep pattern, watching the news for the first time in a month and eating fresh vegetables again!