The much loved Edinburgh Fringe Festival, first set up as a smaller rival to the main festival but now an entity in it's own right, has announced record breaking sales in its first week.

Apparently 56,368 tickets have been sold already, with comedy shows being the fastest selling.

There are some very big names appearing this year, including Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran on short runs, with The Goodies, Russell Brand, Paul Merton, Rich Hall and Jason Byrne all making an impact.

For the first time, the four biggest Fringe venues of the Underbelly, Pleasance, Gilded Balloon and the Assembly Rooms are to sell tickets at their rivals. We can imagine that this should help boost the sales and prevent some of the endless walking about that tends to happen during the Fringe.

It should be an absolutely fantastic line-up, with new stars being born and hopefully some more well-known ones cementing their position as favourites. A couple of years ago saw Jerry Springer: The Opera pull in vast crowds - what'll be the surprise hit this year?