Edinburgh Festivals Diary: Mound box office returns and Craig Hill's hour of need

But it’s all worth it.

I spoke to comedian Joe Pasquale who, after 40 years working in comedy, is inexplicably at his first ever Fringe - and loving it. Joe deserves an award for being literally the only comedian in Britain who has not been here before - either as a performer or audience member.

“I don’t really like crowds, so I never thought I’d want to come,” explains Pasquale, who is making the most of his time in Edinburgh attending the stand-up shows of his fellow performers in Eleven and a Half Angry Men.

Mound box office returns

It has been four years since there was last a box office there, but now, rival Fringe ticket sellers EdFest, run by major venues, has opened a new live ticket hut on the Mound, powered by a giant real-time offers screen.

The former pop-up cut price tickets box office, a fixture at The Mound precinct at the Fringe for years, traditionally drew huge crowds but was retired in 2019 when Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society said the infrastructure needed had “reached its end of life”. The decision also came as physical tickets were generally retired in favour of a digital ticketing service.

Love The Fringe and Edfest.com, a collaboration of seven venue operators including Underbelly, Assembly, Gilded Balloon and the Pleasance, teamed up this year to create a new ticketing initiative which allows performers to sell tickets with zero commission.

Above the new cabin, the screen displays a constantly-updating feed of ticket offers from across EdFest's seven venues, pulled live from Edfest.com.

Scotland’s smallest comedy club

Thousands of Fringe fans heading from Glasgow to Edinburgh for the festival will be given an early free comedy gig at Queen Street Station this weekend.

ScotRail is launching what it claims is the country’s smallest comedy club - a tiny tent at the station for up to five people to watch gags performed by comedian Rosco McLelland, who will perform exclusive five minute sets.

Rosco says: “It's an honour to serve up some pre-Fringe comedy for fans heading to Edinburgh.”

Taxi driver

Comedian Craig Hill found himself the recipient of a generous act of kindness from one Central Taxis driver who helped him out in his hour of need this week.

Craig explains: “I have NEVER left the house without my phone and tonight on the way to my first show, I suddenly realised in the taxi, I didn’t have my phone or any of my bank cards as back up, and the taxi driver was so lovely, he gave me his bank details and just said ‘send it to me later.’ If that doesn’t say customer loyalty, I don’t know what does.”

The Scotsman has not been able to contact said taxi driver to find out if Craig has actually yet paid his bill.