Fringe Programme Launched, Web Site Goes Down

Submitted by edg on Thu, 9 Jun '11 7.44pm

The Festival Fringe Society launched its brochure for Fringe 2011 with customary hype this morning. This year's Fringe is "bigger than ever before". There is a staggering 2,542 "events" over the month of August. 

"Every year the Fringe gets bigger and better," pitched in Scottish Culture minister Fiona Hyslop, "this year’s programme promises to delight and excite audiences from home and abroad."

However, there was a touch of deja vue with the Fringe web site going down on the programme's launch day. 

A short message (above) said: "We'll be back soon! We're making some preparations for the Box Office opening tomorrow".

You would have thought preparations would have been done long ago and on the day of the programme launch punters would be happily perusing the programme on the Fringe web site.

Let's hope it's not emergency measures, or anything as serious as the Fringe Box office fiasco of 2008, where things went pear-shaped from day one.

The box office opens tomorrow at 8am. As Fringe veterans know, tickets tend to be less expensive earlier in a show's run.

Printed versions of the brochure are available from around town including the Fringe Shop.