Fringe Benefits
As Edinburgh opens its doors on this year's August festivals extravaganza, Tech takes a look at the digital options available on the Fringe
Hello, tourists visiting the Scottish capital for our Fringe-y-ness! Hello also to Edinburghers who are, for whatever reason, sticking around to endure it! The Fringe this year is almost certain to be full-up on Olympic leftovers, audiences begging David O’Doherty for new beefs on a cheap keyboard, and rain. All that’s pretty much a given this year, what with past history and current events and all, but more and more getting your digital on at Edinburgh Fringe 2012 will make it easier to stumble drunkenly from one heckling session to another.
Most visible is the Fringe app for iOS and Android, developed by Edinburgh’s very own Kotikan. Having come quite a ways even from last year, the app links up with your ticket purchases to keep track of shows you’ve paid for, and can also map you in the direction of the venue. The general confusingness of the giant shows guide can be cut down to what’s playing right now, nearby, and how much it’ll cost. Along with show summaries, Twitter followings, and the general weight savings of not having a 300 page guide around with you, this is pretty much the 21st century way to see improv groups stumble through another scene about waiting for a bus.
The digital is not limited to finding shows this year, of course, but also worming its way into shows as well. In the same vein as last year’s grad students having a stand-up night about why academia left them woefully unprepared to have actual human conversations, this year Dan Willis joins the Fringe, having put aside his former life as computer programmer, to talk about how he’s turned comedy into a 9-to-5 job, just like his old one. His show, Control Alt Delete – The Funny Side of Computers, is clearly out there to prove that there’s more going on behind the scenes of your computer than your latest Facebook post.
If you’re a computer person, you know there are ways to avoid rain entirely for days at a time, even to forget what rain looks like. This Fringe, you might as well spend that time laughing with others at a show.