Press Release - August 2018

Devoted Fringe-Goers Could See 320 Shows at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe!

Plan My Fringe, a free app that allows visitors to the Edinburgh Fringe to fit in as many shows as possible, has returned for 2018, and has calculated that you can see an even more incredible 320 shows in the 25 days of the Edinburgh Fringe, averaging almost 13 shows every day! This is as the result of some new features that have been released on the app - the unique Fringe Trail and the Recommendations section.

Last year Plan My Fringe proved it was possible to see 314 different shows at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, but it has topped that this year!

The 320 shows would set you back a whopping £1915. But for those who are equally dedicated but with tighter budgets, visitors could still get to fit in 271 free shows!

Henson IT Solutions, the company behind Plan My Fringe, have set the "Plan My Fringe Challenge" for anyone who can see at least 90% of this total, aided by the Plan My Fringe app. If they can prove they have seen this number they will get a cash prize! Failing that, the person who can prove they have seen the most shows will receive a certificate and will appear on the Plan My Fringe web site next year.

Mark Henson, Managing Director of Henson IT Solutions said "The Edinburgh Fringe is like home to us, and as dedicated Fringe-goers we have always wanted to see as many shows as possible. We therefore designed a tool to schedule them for us and after the 10th fellow Fringe-goer had asked to use it we realised we had better make it available! So we created Plan My Fringe."

Maddie Henson, Sales Director of Henson IT Solutions said "Whilst up in Edinburgh last year testing the new app, we had several people who said they liked what we did but wanted it to do even more - in particular for it to do Recommendations and What’s On Nearby after a show. So we made sure this year that these features were included in the app."

Plan My Fringe has one mission: to help people, both performers and visitors, to have the best Fringe possible!

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

"Plan My Fringe" is an unofficial Fringe web-site https://www.planmyfringe.co.uk and linked iPhone app (Android version coming very soon). Data is provided courtesy of the Edinburgh Festivals Listings API.

The Edinburgh Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. The 2018 Fringe takes place between 3rd and 27th of August, and consists of around 3900 shows and over 60000 performances.

The algorithm that performed these calculations was set to allow a walking speed of 4mph, a minimum of 5 minutes gap between shows, and at least 10 minutes for lunch and dinner each day. But these 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 320 shows and 271 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.