I have just come back from my (nearly) annual long weekend at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is now the major element of what is the biggest arts festival in the world, with literally thousands of shows, of all types, across hundreds of different venues, across the city.

For those of you who don’t already know, Edinburgh is a pretty hilly town (which is relevant below!)

We actually managed to see 26 shows in 4.5 days, which is a lot!

You won’t be shocked to learn I did research up-front. This time around I got my personal favourite AI (claude) to do some of the donkey-work for, such having a cowork task setup to scan through all the many review sites for 4* and 5* reviews, and provide a daily summary; also check out which shows were 2-for-1 and flag that, and actually go and find out if we could fit this or that into the schedule.

Could Do Better!?

I was with my wife, who still said, “no, you can do better”. Her theory, of some years standing is it should be possible not only to see 5, 6 or 7 good shows a day but if you work it out right you can start at Assembly on the Mound, and end up at the bottom of Cowgate …and critically for her, after the initial climb (or ride) you are always walking downhill!

We saw a lot of good shows, quite a few of those in contention for the main prizes, plus some old favourites and just left-field stuff; we managed to get in ahead of the scramble for shows that had last minute buzz, and sell out; we had time in between to not have to hurry too much; I had proper breaks to have proper meals…

But I could not manage to do that and exclusively follow the force of gravity!

You Cannot Always Optimise for Everything

Now with my years of background knowledge, my access to the information tools I have, I could have arranged so we never went uphill. For example we could have seen 6 consecutive shows at the same venue, which would have fulfilled my partner’s requirement, of “no hills”. But obviously that was not her only requirement and I treated that as (at most!) a “nice to have”.

The “must have” requirements here, and the “must see” shows, and we decided based on research, what we believed are going to give us the best return on our investment of money, but mostly time.

At this point, I feel I should put my hand-up and acknowledge this whole thing, while I think it’s a good metaphor, is a metaphor I am going to push to within an inch of its life!

So yes, picking shows is like a MoSCoW analysis, with competing stakeholders, and sometimes mutually contradictory requirements …things just clash!

We were there for less than 5 days of a 28 day festival, so in that sense severely time-boxed!

Shows start when they start (kind of) and if you miss it you miss it, so getting there is a deadline (and Fringe shows are non-allocated seating, even being just on time, is often not optimal).

Some acts we could see at the Fringe, but also we could see in London, where we live …so a workaround.

The point is, sometimes to go see 3 good shows, you quite likely have to go to 3 locations, and they probably are not in descending height order!

Exactly How Far Am I Going to Push this Metaphor?

Not much further, promise!

The one last point I am going to make is in previous years, my friends and I have spent a lot of time going through the (very thick) printed Fringe guide (which interestingly doesn’t have everything, despite having thousands of shows!); and then making lists, even spreadsheets and mailing them around …not seeing clashes, not being collaborative, missing each other and shows!

It’s 2026! So Claude.ai, connected to a Google-Calendar, shared …means we didn’t miss extra shows, hot-tips, cancelled shows or managing to connect with our friends!

The tool makes sure we have all the information, in a timely manner, it also doesn’t schedule things for me, but it can tell/show us what (for example) isn’t physically possible! It enables the decision making …like its meant to!

Finding the Best Mix

So really the Fringe done right, IMHO is

• Deciding on priorities
• Weighing your options realistically
• Sequencing what needs to happen
• Being flexible and able to adapt to change

Sound familiar anyone …see you next year Edinburgh!!