As the excitement builds about the Fringe box office opening next Monday, I'd like to let you into a little secret.  Sure, I'll be getting the programme, and I'll be poring over it and making my first choices for this year.  But the truth is that I've never actually booked a Fringe ticket before the Festival actually started.  And what's more - despite that laziness - in ten years of regular Fringe-going, I've never found I couldn't get a ticket for a show I really wanted to see.

Waiting for reviews

Don't make yourself the guinea-pig.  Hold your nerve, and someone else will check it out for you...

There are real disadvantages, as well, of booking too early: all you have to go on right now is the 40-word write-up each show is allowed in the Festival programme.  You won't have seen the more detailed venue programmes yet, and you certainly won't have had a chance to see any reviews.  That's OK if you're sure you know what you're getting... but if you're in any doubt about a show, why make yourself the guinea-pig?  Hold your nerve, and someone else will check it out for you.

Now I do have to admit my position isn't entirely typical.  Firstly, it's my great good fortune to be in Edinburgh for the whole of the Fringe: if I want to see a popular act I can pitch up on a dull mid-Festival Tuesday, when tickets are hardly at a premium.  And secondly, I'm not really one for seeing big names off the television, which are the shows that usually sell out first.  All the same, I'm the living proof; you can have a fantastic Fringe without booking a single ticket before you leave home.

So what does it all add up to?  Well, if there's a particular face off the telly you're desperate to see, don't let me put you off booking: that show will sell out, and there's no harm in sorting yourself out early.  And if you're going to see your friend, grandson or neighbour performing on the stage, get right in there.  They'll appreciate the early sales.

But that tempting modern version of Macbeth by a group you've never heard of, which sounds great in the programme but you can't quite be sure?  Of course, keep an eye on it - but don't rush to judgement.  A hundred to one says it will still be there in August.

Richard Stamp is FringeGuru's founder and a self-confessed Festival nerd.  He denies sleeping with the Fringe programme under his pillow.

This is an updated version of an article first published in July 2007.