Two-for-one Fringe tickets - if you live in EH postcode area

The Cheaper Fringe for Locals scheme will be launched during the festival in August, with those living in an EH postcode area offered exclusive two-for-one ticket offers for dozens of shows.

The scheme, a wholly voluntary organisation, was established by Edinburgh resident and Fringe performer Sally Slingback, who said that she felt locals perceived the Fringe as being too tourist-orientated and expensive and so did not attend.

"I was born and brought up in Edinburgh and although I have many friends who have appeared in Fringe shows I also have many who have little or no connection with it," she said.

"A couple of years ago I was chatting to friends on a night out and it transpired none of them had ever been to a Fringe show. They believed it was all for tourists or too expensive.

"That's why I set up Cheaper Fringe for Locals, as it engages them with the world's largest and most spectacular arts festival in the world."

A variety of venues have signed up to the scheme, including The Stand, The Pleasance and C venues. The exclusive ticket deal includes all shows at The Stand 2, 4 and 5, from Sunday to Thursday throughout the Fringe, and more venues are expected to take part.

So far, more than 10,000 locals have signed up to the free scheme via the website - www.cheaperfringe.com - and the number is said to be growing.

Locals are alerted to the shows offering the two-for-one deal via regular e-mail bulletins. Once tickets are booked, proof of address is all that is needed to access the offer. The scheme ran on a low-key pilot last year through the social networking website Facebook, which, Ms Slingback said, gathered 4,000 members in two weeks.

Nica Burns, theatre boss and Fringe impresario, welcomed the scheme but questioned whether its basis was true. "My experience, having been coming to the Festival since 1981, is that there is a good representation of local people going to the Fringe and they've always been very good at picking up the special offers - there's already a two-for-one on the previews over the first weekend, and they do very well and go to mostly local people, and that has transformed those early performances," she said.

"But anything that encourages ticket sales to people who wouldn't otherwise buy them is a great idea, and if it works everyone will cheer. But I do think that quite a lot of local people go to the Fringe and enjoy it."

Steve Cardownie, festivals and events champion for the city council, said: "Anything which makes the Fringe more accessible is to be welcomed - for people who might not otherwise have considered attending a Fringe show, this scheme sounds just the ticket."

Stop me buy one

A COMEDIAN due to appear at the Fringe next month will meet every member of his audience before he performs by forcing them to buy their tickets from him personally.

Australian stand-up Sanderson Jones, below, has insisted there will be no online, venue or phone sales prior to his show at the 60-seat Just Outside the Box venue at The Caves.

Instead, the website www.ComedySale.Com/Fringe will tell potential punters where the comedian is that day, and his location will also be on Twitter and Foursquare. He will sell tickets on the street, or they can arrange to meet him via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail.