Travel advice

PRACTICALITIES SCOTRAIL are increasing the number of seats on trains from Glasgow, Fife, Dundee and Perth during August – although they warn that services will still be extremely busy.

In Edinburgh, the trams will run all night on Saturdays to cater for hard core party animals.

Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams have excellent apps which make it really easy to buy tickets and use public transport around the city.

Driving in the capital in August is not recommended and parking in the centre is mind bendingly expensive.

Restaurants get very busy so book in advance if you want to have a Michelinstar dinner between shows. All venues have some kind of catering, from juice and crisps to haute hipster coffees, niche beers and street foods from the furthest corners of the Earth. They can be spendy and slow at busy times.

Veterans bring a refillable water bottle, coffee cup and non-rustling snacks with them.

Allow plenty of time to get between venues and pick up tickets as queues are the norm. Make sure you know exactly where you are going.

The mega venues, such as the Pleasance and Underbelly, have different sites with multiple different performance spaces. Better to be early than miss the first five minutes because you have been peching up the Mound.

As well as the Fringe, there’s also the official Festival, a book festival, the Military Tattoo and the Edinburgh Summer Sessions (music gigs) to keep people of all ages and tastes entertained.