The surprising survival of the Festival flyer in the interweb age deserves its own Fringe show - Susan Morrison

Comedy dance act TUTU perform at the Underbelly Press Launch in the McEwan Hall. The venue will host over 150 shows at Edinburgh Fringe this August. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

For a good few years we in the Republic were able to hide behind the tram barricades and the roadworks and just pretend we weren’t in when the August lunacy hit uptown, but the trams are running now.

Yesterday a man in a top hat walked past me at the Foot o’ The Walk. The Fringe has landed.

As a participant in the madness, I realise I can’t complain. In fact, I guess I should be apologising. Nothing worse than being trapped on a bus with an eager thespian giving you an earful about their groundbreaking re-imagining of the 1965 Bee-Ro Cookery Book, explained through music and mime. Or endlessly being badgered by a standup comedian who is doing a history walking tour of the New Town, starting at 3.00 every day up on York Place. Hiya, that second would be me.

The little people who do the flyering will be back, like swallows returning to Capistrano. I know they can be annoying, but they can’t help being young and enthusiastic. Well, for the first week at any rate. Just wait until their hangovers kick in and watch them slow down to manageable levels.

Mind you, I’m saying that, but a disturbing number of these young people are terribly clean living. Back in the prehistoric times before the interweb, we used to just bung the kids a shiny shilling and a pint in a pub for handing out flyers. All change today. Now it's the living wage for their efforts, and quite right, too, then they politely turn down your offer of a drink and ask if you can recommend a good gym.

I am genuinely surprised that the flyer has survived, particularly in the hands of youngsters. Given that this is the generation that will probably toast their marshmallows at the bonfire of a burning planet, they do seem keen to cling onto a load of future landfill to market their shows, many of which are actually about the said coming climate apocalypse.

Well, I guess it's not all bad. The festivals in their various guises bring a serious whack of dosh into town. There’s many a city mortgage paid this month by a theatre group from Wisconsin or a dance troupe from Derry. Accommodation is expensive, but then, most of us who live here all year have to pay a steep price for the privilege.

The bars and the restaurants will do well, I hope. Well, now that Mr Sunak has slapped a whack of tax onto off-the-shelf booze, you might as well go berserk and start drinking in the posh places.

Apparently, Rishi, a man who doesn't touch the stuff at all, thinks that we should all be drinking less and so he’s going to make the Chardonnay and Auchentoshan Single Malt more expensive so that we are all healthier and live longer. This from a man who leads a government so catastrophically lame it would drive anyone to drink and anyway they’ve wrecked the economy so badly that pensions are becoming the stuff of dreams.

We should really be encouraging the little flyer people out of the gyms to hammer the booze thus cutting down the chances of them making it to pensionable age.

Ach, well, it's only three weeks. Let's buckle in and enjoy the show.