The Edinburgh Festival had it's 60th anniversary this year, and you don't need me to state the blindingly obvious by saying it has changed somewhat since the late forties. Initially starting as the Edinburgh International Festival, the name 'Edinburgh Festival' is now simply a shorthand way of referring to the many aspects of the event, that take up root in Scotland's capital every summer.

There is still plenty for the traditionalists and those of a more sophisticated nature to enjoy. There's your serious theatre and classical music concerts, The Military Tattoo is and always will be a focal point of the schedule, and the open air classical music and firework display combo is one of the hottest tickets in town. But it's the vast, almost over whelming cross section of music, comedy, art, theatre and god knows what else, that has made Edinburgh the must attend, world famous cultural phenomenon it is, and has been for decades.

I first went in 1996, and returned every year during the second half of the nineties. In fact I was very nearly a performer one year. The school I went to entered a play, but yours truly didn't make it past the audition stage: just think I could have been a West End megastar by now! To my knowledge none of the cast of 'Never Mind the Rain Forrest' are treading the boards of Broadway darling, so maybe the theatrical version of the A and R men didn't find time in their busy lives to take a look.

Edinburgh is all about being spotted. Careers are started and finished during one month a year in the Scottish capital. Frank Skinner is one who's profile ballooned after he won the legendary Perrier Award. The man who for me will always be one half of 'Fantasy Football League' was back for the first time in over a decade, with fellow household names like Jimmy Car and Paul Merton also pitching up for a few days each. However, just as with Reading or Glastonbury, if you stick to the main stage, or in this case the acts you've seen on the telly, you miss out on so much, be it the stars of the future, the ones who'll vanish never to be seen again, or those that are just so unbelievably weird that you've no idea if even they know what the future might hold.

So what's a website with the strap line of "where music rocks" doing covering such an event?

You only need to have been to Reading, Glasto, V, Guilfest or Latitude to know the roles comedy, cabaret and theatre play in the whole festival package. Then there's the way T on the Fringe has expanded over the years, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and Kaiser Chiefs just three of the massive line up of acts that played this year. Even that ever-present festival attraction, the silent disco, made an appearance.

Many of the comedians on show here appear in comedy tents at festivals around the country, make names for themselves on TV or branch out into the world of alternative music radio, Jimmy Car, Tom Binns, Russell Howard and Ian Stone all apply to at least one of those. Then there's the vast cross-section of theatre that would make the stuffy, wear a tie for a posh night out watching the classics brigade's eyes water. It was here the stage production of Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' introduced audiences to the dark side of 'fringe' Edinburgh with its hapless tale of drug dependent residents and their nihilistic lives. On the subject of the classics, one year I saw a version of MacBeth (sorry the Scottish play for the superstitious readers) where the story was told by an impressionist performing a multitude of Simpsons characters. This time out my dip into the water of theatre was to check out the debut of a production telling the story of the working life of John Peel.

Whether you want to stick to the tried and tested, or discover something new, the Edinburgh Fringe is an event that will have something perfect just for you ... oooh that rhymes ... just you watch, it's the poetry readings for me in 2008 ... stardom beckons baby!

In the meantime, get a flavour of the Edinburgh Fringe with my festival diary which will run over the next few days, plus the odd review or three from T on the Fringe courtesy of R13's Mr. Scotland Andy Reilly.

Diary Part 1 features Tom Binns, free comedy and Jerry Sadowitz

Diary Part 2has more free stuff, Andy Warhol, Seasick Steve, Frank Sinatra, John Peel, Jimmy Carr and Jim Bowen...no really!

Review of 'Teenage Kicks'

T on the FringeInterpol, The Shins, Seasick Steve and more