How Many Shows Can You See at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe?


The answer is 321 according to the "Plan My Fringe" algorithm. See the proof here. This beats the 2018 calculation by 1, it is getting harder to squeeze more shows in each year.

To see these 321 shows would cost you £1931.50! But if you wanted to see only free shows (and set your budget as £0 in "Plan My Fringe"), you could still see 256 shows, see the proof here.


The algorithm that performed these calculations was set to allow a walking speed of 4mph, a minimum of 5 minutes gap (plus walking time) between shows, and at least 10 minutes for lunch and dinner each day. The official Fringe dates of 2nd August 2019 at 06:00 to 26th August 2019 23:59 were used. These preferences can all be set on the app by advanced users. All shows were rated equally.

The linked PDFs show the results of the calculations to prove that the claims made for 321 shows or 256 free shows are possible. Henson IT Solutions make no recommendation as to the standards of the shows that are included on these lists, we rated every show equally then asked the app to fit in as many shows as possible. During normal usage of Plan My Fringe, users express a preference for the shows they wish to see, and the algorithm will adjust to ensure they don’t miss out on their favourites.