Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Biggest ever programme unveiled with 2,542 shows

• The 'Fringe Squad' launch the 2011 programme at Edinburgh Castle today. Picture: Neil Hanna

Once again, it is the biggest ever line-up announced by the Festival Fringe Society, with 2,542 shows planned for 258 venues across the city in August.

That is slightly more than the 2,453 shows last year, which was itself a significant increase on 2009.

A new feature of the programme is a dedicated cabaret section, which appears alongside the longstanding mix of comedy, theatre, dance, children's shows and more.

Comedian Gervais, who has found fame in the USA following his hit sitcoms The Office and Extras, will appear at the new BBC@Potterow venue for a Q & A session with actor Warwick Davis about their new show Life's Too Short.

One of the hot tickets is likely to be A Celebration of Harold Pinter, directed by American star of screen and stage Malkovich and starring Julian Sands.

While several top comedians have announced they will not attend this year, popular stand-up comics such as Russell Kane, Phill Jupitus, Omid Djalili, Al Murray and Stewart Lee have confirmed shows.

Also featuring in the bumper programme is a show by former TV magician Paul Daniels, a National Theatre of Scotland production of the David Greig play The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and Simon Callow appearing in drag in Le Mardi Monoprix.

The musical offshoot of the Fringe that is The Edge Festival has also revealed its headlining acts for August, including US indie-rockers The National and long-standing British bands such as Morcheeba, Gomez and Cast.

At the programme launch at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre today Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland said she was "delighted" at the scale of this year's programme.

She added: "The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is still the first choice for performers, producers, venues, artists and creators to come and tell their story; we are proud that at the Fringe is still THE place to bring your work, with opportunities to amaze, enthral and excite audiences from both far away and close to home."

The full Fringe programme will be online at edfringe.com later today and tickets go on sale tomorrow.

• Read full reaction to the Fringe announcement in The Scotsman tomorrow. Plus, get the full 364-page Fringe programme free with The Scotsman on Saturday.