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Words: Curio
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Thursday, 02 August 2007 |
I, Curio, stood on the Royal Mile today and a rare smile crept across my face. They had arrived.
Every conceivable talentless oaf, every highly-strung wannabe-thespian,
every gratingly sinister kiddie theatre troupe, every street performing
charlatan, every out-of-tune musician, everyone. All congregated in a
swash of colour, a cacophony of badly sung lyrics and a frenzy of
slap-dash self-promotion. There was, I can confirm, some talent there
too.
The Royal Mile is the place to witness a feeding-frenzy of shameless public relations and self promotion. Seems all a bit of a no-brainer as most shows will struggle to beat the Fringe’s average daily attendance of four persons.
The only thing that outnumbers the dearth of talent on the Mile is the flyers.
Edinburgh must be the “paperiest” city in the world right now. Never have so many trees been culled, pulped and printed upon, in time for the Festival. Every nook and cranny of every building in Edinburgh, every outstretched palm, and on every street corner, the common flyer is being peddled with gusto.
Seemingly local Edinburgh hospitals have had to deal with 400% more emergency intakes since the start of the Edinburgh Festival. Injuries have been mainly flyer-related. Severe paper laceration and repetitive strain injury from over-zealous gloss-paper distribution, are the most common reported complaints.
It just goes to show that being a part of the Edinburgh Festival does have its perils. Both mental and physical.
Exeunt.
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