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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate living in Edinburgh during the festival?

100 replies

auldfuckingspinster · 14/08/2016 13:26

Trying to go about your usual way of life is a nightmare. Buses are packed and take twice as long to get anywhere as tourists try to pay their fares with £20 notes not to mention using the drivers as mobile tour guides. Shows cost a fortune so it's hard to go to more than a handful of them. Worst of all is hearing comics refer to your city as something that pops up for 3 weeks of the year then disappears for the other 49.

OP posts:
Musicaltheatremum · 14/08/2016 13:33

Haha. Join the club. And the weather has ween horrendous. My daughter has been up for a week and we were going to soak up the atmosphere but the rain drove us back home. My son is earning lots of money working in the bar at .st Andrews square though.
And people walk so slowly as if they've nowhere to go!
And the new 20mph zone too..... Although you can't go any faster than 10mph at the moment as there are so many people and buses around.

WeeBoobs · 14/08/2016 13:33

YABU.

MissElizaBennettsBookmark · 14/08/2016 13:38

YANBU

The good thing is that at least all the pretentious tossers in the country have decamped to Edinburgh for 3 weeks of artistic wankery ...

AgentProvocateur · 14/08/2016 13:39

YANBU - I live and work in Glasgow, but have to go to Edinburgh for meetings. It takes twice as long to get anywhere.

weebarra · 14/08/2016 13:41

YANBU. I work in the west end and live to the south so it's a nightmare. Took DS2 along the Royal mile on way to the book festival yesterday and the amount of fuckers who seemed quite happy to push a 5 year old out of the way was ridiculous. I did explain to him that the festival is good because it brings tourists and their money to the city, but I'm not sure he bought it!

EddieStobbart · 14/08/2016 13:43

ABU and NBU - the "Edinburgh as 'event'" rather than a real place bugs me too but am planning to Airbnb my house next year so am hoping to love it more. Pissed off that school holidays mean can only do it for half the month not all though!

squoosh · 14/08/2016 13:43

Next year rent your house/flat out for the month of August and buy your own small island with the profits!

rookiemere · 14/08/2016 13:44

YABU. It's great for the cities economic prosperity to have so many visitors.

Lothian bus services seem to deliberately make their fares confusing - I try to help out foreign visitors trying to navigate the system and I have been known to hand out change to make up a fare sometimes.

I suppose it depends where you live - we're in the burbs so it doesn't really impact me too much.

Chiliprepper · 14/08/2016 13:45

YABU I love it, so great to be able to see a quick show after work and the atmosphere is great. The crowds can be annoying if you're in a hurry but that's a small price to pay imho. Agree with pp has been shite though

toopeoply · 14/08/2016 13:46

Think it's even more packed than usual. Was out yesterday and every bin was overflowing, was disgusting.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 14/08/2016 13:46

YANBU..although I've been more annoyed by locals barrelling me out of the way this year Grin

WorraLiberty · 14/08/2016 13:47

Worst of all is hearing comics refer to your city as something that pops up for 3 weeks of the year then disappears for the other 49.

Is that really the worst part of it all? Confused

I was just thinking of my friends who live in Notting Hill. They're dreading the carnival as usual, but at least it's only a long weekend.

Hotwaterbottle1 · 14/08/2016 13:48

Yanbu, annoys me too. My pet hate is tourists that just walk out into the road. It appears during festival time you don't have to stop & look!

HirplesWithHaggis · 14/08/2016 13:49

YANBU. Many, many years ago I used to work in a shop in Hanover Street, with another branch in West Bow. Walking from one to the other wasn't usually much of a deal, past the art galleries and up the Playfair Steps, across the Royal Mile and down towards the Grassmarket, ten minutes or so. But during the Festival, the crowds of slow-moving tourists and the people endlessly stopping you to tell you about their production could easily double the time it took.

And yes, the buses being packed, not to mention the large groups of teenagers on exchange holidays to whom the concept of queuing was entirely foreign... And all the folks who looked startled/terrified when the One o'clock Gun went off, and stopped dead on Princes' Street when I was nipping out to buy lunch... Gah!

What I found most annoying was being told how much of a benefit to the city it all was, so worth punting them some of my council/poll tax - well, it didn't bloody benefit me! Angry

Yes, I'm a very gracious host! Blush Grin

Original poster
auldfuckingspinster · 14/08/2016 13:59

I live near Portobello and work off Lothian Road so I have the choice of getting a bus along Princes Street or down the Royal Mile Angry.

OP posts:
Original poster
auldfuckingspinster · 14/08/2016 14:04

With regard to fares, I check out the public transport before I go. I saved myself getting fined €40 in Berlin by validating my ticket before I boarded the S-bahn, some Americans down the carriage weren't so lucky. It's a £1.60 flat fare, surely not that difficult.

OP posts:
CaptainCrunch · 14/08/2016 14:05

There are loads of free shows, really good ones too. I've seen 8 shows this week, haven't paid for any of them except for a donation at the end if they were good enough, only one I felt didn't merit anything.

I love the Fringe, it's a privilige to live in Edinburgh.

Dozer · 14/08/2016 14:07

My opinion on this depends partly on how much money the festival makes, and for whom!

MariposaUno · 14/08/2016 14:12

I can imagine it's frustrating if your time is limited. When I lived in Edinburgh I didn't mind the fringe and always got to where I need to be in time.

I like the festival it brings so much life and energy to the city, lots of free shows and 5am licence, if I plan to go to Edinburgh at this time of yesr I prefer to leave my car at home or at a friends near town rather than drive in.
Still easier to get about via public transport.

OvO · 14/08/2016 14:15

It's the standing/walking down the middle of the road that drives me batty.

I know it's picturesque cobblestone but it's still a bloody road! MOVE! I have no idea how there's not more accidents.

MrsMonkeyBear · 14/08/2016 14:18

Yanbu!!!! I avoid the city center like the plague for August. I don't miss working in pubs in the slightest and glad dh doesn't either. Last year I was lucky to see him for 20 minutes in the afternoon as he'd be getting in as I left for work and going out as I was coming in.

We made the mistake of trying to get into the town one Friday to pick some things up for my friends wedding and got stuck on the Royal Mile for an hour

derxa · 14/08/2016 14:20

YANBU
I went into Edinburgh last Saturday so I was a tourist. I accept I was fucking annoying wandering down the Royal Mile- stopping and starting randomly.
The bins were disgusting.

dementedma · 14/08/2016 14:20

Mixed feelings. Great buzz but the crowds are a pain. It's great when it's sunny and everyone's enjoying being out and about.
Am off to the tattoo tomorrow..

HoratioNightboy · 14/08/2016 14:35

it's a privilege to live in Edinburgh

This!

Yes, YABU. If you have lived here for more than a year then you know that this always happens and you adjust accordingly. It's really not hard. We have the largest festival in the world on our doorstep and instead of moaning, just get into the spirit of it. Be an international citizen for August, not a whinger, and be glad that people want to come here! Grin

Failingfasttonight · 14/08/2016 14:50

It's a privilege etc... One I pay through the nose for and see very little benefit from!
And most of it happens once the schools are back so trying to plough through tourists in school run/way to work is not fun.
I love tourists the rest of the time incidentally, just not festival goers!