Make yourself a pot of tea and get the biscuit tin out or open a bottle of wine, this will take a while! If you’re a Fringe novice I would advise you not to try to do it all in one go, it takes practice. Always mark up potentials (you’ll never find it again if you don’t) and maybe mark if it’s a definite, an um-not-sure, a check out the company’s website, a wait for reviews, an only worth the preview price or if it appears listed at the Half Price Hut.

Then go through it again, maybe do it from back to front this time, or alternate categories. Leave it by the loo, peruse it on those long visits when you’ve nothing else to do!

Now here’s where it’s  good to have a spare programme to hand. Go through and cut out all the potentials from the spare, and if you have a Fringe buddy go through your choices together  (and hope you have at least a few matches). I had a good Fringe buddy for many years, we had so many matches it made the compromises on our other choices not seem so bad as we respected each other’s taste and trusted it to lead us to right. Though he’s no longer around I still do this, it’s easy to move bits of paper around to see what will fit where, throw a choice in the bin after a glance at their website, keep tabs on shows you haven’t yet committed to.

Or you can do none of the above and wing it! I’m afraid I need much structure in my life, like a good boy scout I like to be prepared!