Felicity Edmond and Johnathan Elders promote the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme at the Royal Botanical Gardens in the city.
This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe will be bigger than ever before, with a record 2,871 shows.
The number of comedy, theatre, dance and music performances at the world’s largest arts festival has increased by 6% on last year, organisers said.
Comedians Russell Kane, Reginald D Hunter, Jason Manford, Ardal O’Hanlon, Al Murray and Lucy Porter are all due to appear.
Dad’s Army stalwart Ian Lavender, comedian Omid Djalili and actors Steven Berkoff and Dame Janet Suzman will also tread the boards during the theatre programme.
The cabaret and spoken word categories will return this year, with George Galloway MP and presenter Ben Fogle appearing.
Launching the programme, Kath Mainland, chief executive of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, urged audiences to “enjoy every second” of the “magnificent” programme.
“The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is not just important for being the largest arts festival in the world,” she said.
“It is important for being the most wonderful event created by the spontaneous freedom of expression of tens of thousands of creative souls from all over the world.”
Tickets for 1,800 shows are already on sale via the Fringe website.
