Festival blog: Beware the curse of the Fringe by Andrew Eaton, Scotsman arts editor

Published on Thursday 7 August 2008 13:24

IS THIS year's Fringe cursed? We spent much of last week pondering this question, as box office chaos continued and a thick mist descended over the entire city just as thousands of Fringe performers were trying to reach town (many got diverted to far-away Prestwick).

Then there was an almost Biblical downpour on the Fringe's opening weekend, soaking the parade and flooding venues.

Now we're wondering whether the curse has extended to the Scotsman itself. One of our reviewers got mugged a couple of nights ago, another has just ended up in hospital after enduring days of chronic muscle pain, and another's laptop computer went into meltdown, leading to a whole day of reviews being postponed while emergency repairs were arranged.

What the hell is going on? At first we thought it was a side-effect of God punishing Jim Rose, pictured, for his devil's work - you know, in that farcically inefficient way God has of punishing somebody but, in the clumsiness of his efforts, making lots of other people's lives miserable too. (And don't mock; millions of people believe that God acts in exactly this way, so who are we to argue? Call it "collateral damage" if you will.) But then, a couple of days ago, we discovered who the culprits were. It's all the fault of ThreeWeeks, the free festival magazine that employs lots of students to write reviews of Fringe shows. It is the magazine's 13th year on the Fringe this year. Yes! It's all their fault. Storm their offices now.

Only joking. Obviously.