It is exam time. Central area is eerily silent, as across Edinburgh thousands of students sit hunched over their files, books, laptops and kettles like worker bees in a city-wide hive. On the outside, however, strange things will soon begin to happen. Scaffolding will mysteriously appear for a matter of hours, only to disappear with equal stealth. We will no longer be allowed to use the society rooms in the Pleasance. A matter of weeks later, George Square Gardens will become the most expensive bar in Edinburgh, a large purple upside-down cow will dominate Bristo Square and there will be good food in Potterrow. Ladies and Gentlemen, forget your woes, leave your troubles by the door, roll up roll up! For it is time for the world’s largest festival of the arts!

The Edinburgh International Festival programme is already out, the Festival Fringe programme entries have all been sent in and the Bedlam Theatre already smells of fresh paint. So just what are students doing in Edinburgh doing this summer? They are working, writing, reviewing, performing, producing, directing, or being part of the huge technical team at one of the hundreds of venues around the city.

Year-round, the Bedlam Theatre is run by members of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company. During the festival, it is handed over to the student Fringe team. When asked about the Bedlam’s summer programme, Venue Manager for Fringe 2008 Colleen Patterson says: ‘We try to have a good variety of shows in our programme which fit together well; this year we've got some great student shows from universities and schools around the UK, as well as two shows from EUTC. I love the Fringe because it provides such an even playing field for different types of shows, and it's a great place to take risks and push boundaries.’

One of the EUTC shows on at Bedlam Theatre this summer is Eight, a piece of new writing by Edinburgh student Ella Hickson that uncovers the strange kinks of life beneath the moral façades of modern life. Hickson has been coming to the Festival since her sixth form years and says: "the Fringe is unparalleled in the diversity and experience it offers for anyone wanting to go into the arts world’, adding that ‘the new-writing scene in Edinburgh is really exciting at the moment’. The Festival Fringe is often a starting point for a theatrical career. There are thousands of shows of all genres vying for press and audience attention, the competition is high and the audiences are opinionated. As a result, up-and-coming theatre companies are forced to raise the quality of their productions and make sure they bring their best work. As Hickson points out, ‘great actors, writers, directors and producers have to start somewhere."

Edinburgh alumnae have been known to make their names at the Fringe, most recently comedy sketch troupe The Penny Dreadfuls and new playwright Al Smith, who is set to return to this year’s festival with new material. Up-and-coming hopefuls include Pangolin’s Teatime, a puppet theatre company directed by Jeremy Bidgood, a fifth-year art student. Having achieved success at the festival in 2006, they will reside at the Pleasance Dome this year (or, as most Edinburgh University students will know it, Potterrow) with their new dark fable The Last Yak.

Also bringing their special brand of humour to the late-night audiences are resident improvised comedy troupe The Improverts. As producer Alex Hall admits, ‘the all consuming, exhausting, giddying theatrical and comedic whirl of the Fringe is hard to summarise... People are free to experiment, either to progress up the career ladder or simply for a laugh.’ Sleekit Productions, set up by students and ex-students from Queen Margaret’s and Telford College in 2007 found success at last year’s festival with their show A History of Scotland (in 60 minutes or less), and are going back to the rehearsal room in preparation for their 2008 run.

Most important at the Fringe is to make sure you drink your bodyweight each night, take a gamble on a piece of interpretative dance and gain on average three hours sleep per night. It is great, however, to see the weird, wonderful and varied projects being undertaken by students, and to see the city at its most flourishing. Enjoy the Festival.