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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:
JudyCoolibar · 23/08/2016 17:57

People have to deal with these types of issues everywhere. If you live in Wimbledon it's two weeks of hell, if you live near Wembley or Twickenham it's intermittent days of hell, if you live in Notting Hill it's the Bank Holiday weekend of hell. Be grateful you're not in a tourist town in Cornwall where you get six weeks of it.

Fluffyears · 23/08/2016 18:04

My friend rents his flat out and goes on holiday for most of August and makes a packet. I hate it I had one girl grab me to make me listen to her about her show. I ended up hitting her to get her to let me go after shouting at her for ages!

BertrandRussell · 23/08/2016 21:36

My dd's working at the Pleasance. Even she's getting a bit jaded now, even though Russell Howard helped her with her bin bags.....

Grouchymare · 23/08/2016 21:50

YANBU. Maybe if I was on holiday instead of working full time with two young kids at home I would enjoy it more but as things are I don't have time/money/babysitters for the shows and I'm just avoiding the city centre until the hellish month of August is over!

DioneTheDiabolist · 23/08/2016 21:56

YANBU OP. I love Edinburgh. I have been to the festival multiple times. I don't know how you put up with it.Thanks Listen to the PPs upthread, rent your place out for eleventy million* £ and book a holiday in August.

*2014 price. Probably twelfty million now.

AssembleTheMinions · 23/08/2016 22:00

We saw Russell Howard there last week. He's very small

KC225 · 23/08/2016 22:13

I hear you OP. I hear you loud and clear. I used to live round the corner from Wimbledon. Could take or leave tennis before moving there. During and since I loathe and detest bastard tennis with a vengeance. I put on a brave face and I always gave directions with a smile (I called it my London National Service) but the traffic jams, the rubbish, the noise and extra time it took to get to and from work argggghhh. It was years ago but thought of it still gives me a nervous tic.

Lesley1980 · 23/08/2016 22:23

Can't stand it. We are close enough to hear the fireworks every night & it just annoys me. The buses, the crowds, everyone hanging about & soaking up the ambiance of nothing, people blocking your way, over priced everything.

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/08/2016 22:26

YANBU, I live in the middle of town and work in just off Lothian Road, and getting anywhere takes ages especially if we have to take the car.

The first year or two after I moved to my current house was a nightmare, work is a 10 minute walk away and it used to take double that dodging all the tourists and leafleters, and going out at lunchtime was even worse.

Now...I think I've perfected a "FUCK OFF, I'm a local" look which means I no longer get accosted :D

I know the festival is good for Edinburgh, but it is hard work when you are trying to live a normal life around it, and my poor cats hate the fireworks from the tattoo.

FadedRed · 23/08/2016 22:30

Unless you have lived in Edinburgh since before 1947, then maybe YABabitU.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 23/08/2016 22:31

YABVVVU. It is a privilege to live in Edinburgh. I love it at this time of year.

I've been to 20 shows so far with 5 more to go. Some wonderful; some dire- no comedians.

5minutestobed · 23/08/2016 22:34

I hear you OP! I hate it! Everywhere is so busy, I can't take my three year old to half the places we normally go as its so busy he would probably get squished/lost. Trying to get on heaving buses with a buggy is no fun either. Can't wait until it is over! (also waving as I live near Portobello too!)

purplefox · 23/08/2016 22:41

The whole tourists trying to get on the bus, asking the driver if this bus is the right bus, asking where they need to get off, then trying to pay with notes, demanding change, then faffing around to find change to buy a bus ticket, when you're going through on a main road with a hotel at every bus stop is the most ridiculously infuriating travel experience, THERE ARE SIGNS SAYING NO CHANGE. Thankfully I moved closer to the city so I can now avoid bus hell.

However.. I now have a festival venue at the bottom of my street, and instead of queuing like civilised people they loiter all over the street whilst waiting to get in, and the people actually trying to get places are having to walk along the road to get by.

And going to sleep before the nightly fireworks is just futile, and DS waking up most nights because of them Angry

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/08/2016 22:47

It doesn't feel like much of a privilege when you are trying to live your normal life around it. I have aspergers so crowds and small smelly dark crowded festival venues are very much not my thing. It also causes us issues with trying to run our business (and no, we don't get an uptick due to the festival, wrong sort of business!) due to Edinburgh being so busy and every building bigger than a bus stop being used as a venue

DioneTheDiabolist · 23/08/2016 22:52

ChocolateWineThanks to all Edinbugh residents.

OvO · 24/08/2016 00:17

I'm laughing at "be grateful you're not in a tourist town in Cornwall" Grin

Pretty sure Edinburgh is more full of tourists than any Cornwall town at any time of the year. Edinburgh is off the charts busy in August. It's not 4 weeks of tourists, it's months of tourists and 4 weeks of madness!

It's particularly difficult being disabled when there's no bloody space on buses, trams or even the pavement.

Still love the place, of course.

VickyJA · 25/08/2016 11:03

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ratspeaker · 25/08/2016 11:43

Ach, I suppose though it creates work, both my student DD have bar/ tourist jobs for the summer.

While it's true the Festival has been around since the late 40s the Fringe has grown immensely over the last decade or so. Every would be comedian feels the need to put on a show here to be discovered. We've become the X factor comedy city.
It must be costing them a fortune in venue fees and rent.

StatisticallyChallenged · 25/08/2016 12:10

Venue fees are truly astonishing, decent venues can get the same for a 3 week festival let as they achieve renting out their premises to a group for several hours a day, 5 days a week, all year round.

Original poster
auldfuckingspinster · 25/08/2016 12:23

Am chuckling at the idea that Edinburgh is less touristy than a Cornish town outside festival time. The tourist season begins in April and lasts pretty much through to October then starts up again for Christmas and New Year. Even 10 or 15 years ago the fringe was less busy.

OP posts:
DrinkMilkAndKickAss · 25/08/2016 12:29

Yabu, the thing I miss most about living in Edinburgh is being there during the festival! Luckily we still have relatives there and have just got back from a 10 day stint doing festivally things and catching up with old friends. Yes it was an expensive week but not because of the festival - the free fringe is booming now so we saw a different (generally speaking very good) free show every night. Yes crowds are annoying, but if you adjust your expectations accordingly for a month it's far more manageable! Perhaps moving to a small city that is heaving with tourists year round has made me more patient towards that aspect of the festival though!

Honestly, you are so lucky to be living there. If it wasn't for kids and work I would be back in a heartbeat!

Bring on retirement Grin

teainbed · 25/08/2016 12:38

YANBU. It's fucking awful. Thank god it's finishing soon.

MorrisZapp · 25/08/2016 12:42

Love and hate it, but on balance I wouldn't be without it. I started my fringe going aged 14, when a ticket to see Craig Charles or Bing Hitler cost four quid. It's changed a lot since then but I still need my annual pilgrimage to the Pleasance, there's just nothing else like it.

But they need to knock down Greyfriars Bobby. It's a bloody accident waiting to happen and it infuriates me every time I go past. As does the 'Harry Potter cafe' where JK Rowling didn't really write her books.

I must admit I love it when friends come to Edinburgh on a sunny festival evening for comedy and beer. I'm like yeah, this is standard :)

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 25/08/2016 13:24

Vicky. I love Edinburgh during the Festival. I think Edinburgh is comparable with the other great cultural cities of Europe (Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna and the like) in a way that no other UK city , other than, London is.

RubyReins · 25/08/2016 15:00

DH is a high heid yin at the Pleasance. We have forgotten what he looks like such are his hours. This is his 20th Fringe and he swears it is his last. I have heard that one before! Still, we get freebies and our kids have very cute Pleasance passes - Very Important Baby etc. I work on the Mile so have been working from home a lot lately such is the bampottery - lots of piss poor renditions from Rent by uber keen kids. I know it is a massive privilege to live here and soak up all the culture but I can't wait for it to be over.