If you've read references to 'the Fringe' and 'Edinburgh Festival' but don't know much about the annual Scottish event to which these labels apply, then this is the guide for you.

This article also features some tips on how to get to Scotland and where to stay - hopefully helpful advice for those who, having had a look at all the exciting things listed on our Fringe mini-site here, are tempted into visiting the festival to see some shows.

What is the Edinburgh Festival?

The Edinburgh International Festival is the world's largest arts festival. Running each August in Scotland (in the capital city, Edinburgh, to be precise), it comprises many individual festivals, such as the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Edinburgh International Television Festival; each of which tends to be a key date in the calendar of the respective industries.

One of those festivals is Edinburgh Festival Fringe, dedicated to the performing arts and, since the 1980s, has a particularly large comedy contingent. The Fringe officially runs from the 1st to 25th of August this year, but many shows start and end a few days either side of that time span.

Since the fledgling days of the Fringe in 1947, it has grown to become the most popular of all the Edinburgh festivals now. Whilst others are only in town for a week or two, the Fringe pretty much takes over the entire city for the whole month of August. For comedy fans the result is over 1,500 different live comedy shows to take in. Comedy is performed in everything from big theatres to university lecture halls to the back rooms of pubs. Even a double decker bus and a garden shed is turned into a comedy performance space during the month.

Comedy is everywhere! Stand-up, sketch comedy, comic plays, improv, pantomime, a man just sitting in a gorilla suit for an hour - there really is something for all tastes.

The Festival is open-access, which means anyone can turn up in the city in August to perform (the only thing to really sort is a venue), and thousands of comedians do just that.

It should be noted most of those performing are not 'TV famous' (at least not yet), but that doesn't mean you won't find lots of laughs. In fact you may very well see hilarious comedians who will be the stars of the future. You might, admittedly, also see some terrible ones - but it's all part of the experience and so much more 'real' a comic adventure than anything you'll see on television.

If you are only interested in seeing established famous comedians, a number do drop into the city as part of their tour (this year that includes John Bishop, Jimmy Carr and Al Murray), but you can see them on the TV any time so we'd urge you to take a punt and try something a bit different. You might even blow your mind with some new hilarity from some unknown new talent.

The hidden truth is that a large percentage of the comedians will make a big financial loss performing at the festival - even if they do really well! For example, stand-up Tiernan Douieb explained to us how, in 2011, even if he'd sold every ticket he would still have lost thousands. The reason for this strange accounting is that the travel, accommodation, venue and publicity fees outweigh possible ticket revenue.

If some acts are facing a guaranteed loss, why do they still perform? Well, for many the festival atmosphere is addictive - it's a chance to hang out with comedy friends after shows, be adored by the public, and generally have a good time.

The festival is also viewed by many performers as a great way to hone their act and improve their comedy skills. Performing the same show around 30 times in a row can really help polish jokes and delivery; pretty much every comedian is a slicker performer at the end of their run.

On top of this, many media publications, agents, and television and radio producers turn up to the festival, so performing at the Fringe is seen as a way of getting feedback from these groups and perhaps help develop a comic's career or take it to the next level.

There's also the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award, aiming to pick out the best new comedian. The winners of this tend to end up with a Radio 4 series soon after, and many - most recently Russell Kane - have gone on to become TV stars.

However, as we've already touched on, it should be noted that for every success story there are dozens more for which things are a bit harder. Susan Calman told us in an interview how her first year performing at the festival was the most miserable month of her life; and Michael McIntyre has spoken in the past about how he racked up huge debts at the festival only to be seen by a handful of people. Every year there's talk of the 'bubble bursting', but for now comedians are still turning up in their droves - 2014 sees a record breaking number of comedy shows scheduled, in fact.

Where to see shows...

There are venues all around the city, staging comedy from morning to late at night. Most shows last exactly an hour.

A big thick official brochure (pictured) is released each year, which you can pick up for free when you arrive in the city. However, we'd suggest you only have a quick glance through this as it's missing a number of shows (comedians have to pay a lot of money to be included in it, so more and more are not bothering). We suggest using BCG's listings to find a show - of course we're always going to say that, but our listings are genuinely more detailed than the official brochure and packed with extra, constantly updated information such as star ratings and audience feedback.

There are two main types of show and venue at the Fringe:

Paid Shows: Typically tickets at 'paid venues' cost around ten to fifteen quid, although prices can vary by date and time, with some a little higher and some a little lower than those benchmark figures. The main ticketed comedy venues are Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Just The Tonic, Pleasance, The Stand and Underbelly - but there are others too.

For really popular shows you should book in advance via the internet (either the venue's website or the official EdFringe.com website - we've the links on all our listings). However, in the majority of cases you can just turn up shortly before a show and pay on the door or at the venue box office. The less you pre-order the more flexible you can keep your day - we'll talk more about the benefits of that in a moment.

Free Shows: PBH's Free Fringe, The Laughing Horse Free Festival and - new for 2014 - Freestival, are organisations that run an ever-increasing number of venues across the city. These venues are mainly smaller spaces (such as the back rooms of pubs), although each group has a notable large building too. Shows at these venues are free to watch - just turn up five minutes before the advertised start time. If you enjoyed the show you are asked to put a donation into a bucket on your way out.

The average donation is probably a couple of quid but if you enjoyed the show we'd encourage you to give the comedians a note (a monetary one). If you think about it, you've just had an hour's top entertainment from them - it's worth that. Most have travelled further than their audiences and have a lot of expenses to pay (including sky-high accommodation costs), so do help them out if you can.

Which shows to see?

This is a hard one to answer as it all depends on your taste! Have a browse through the listings (use the genre filter or search for keywords) to find comedians or show topics that appeal to you.

Competition to get bums on seats is fierce, so do be prepared to be bombarded with posters, flyers and press articles during your time in the city. You'll soon note pretty much every show claims to be a masterpiece and has found a quote to back that claim up. Be wary of all this - even bad reviews tend to include one line of praise that can be taken out of context. Comedians can also use crafty trickery: there's an infamous story of a stand-up turning his terrible one star review into the poster quote 'A Star'!

A far better a way to judge whether a show is good or not is to look at a full cross section of reviews from all the publications together. We do our best to include every review a show gets on our listing, allowing you to see what the general opinion is at a glance.

However, don't write off a show that looks interesting due to low- or no-star ratings. With over 1,500 shows being staged, the critics aren't going to be able to see everything and might miss a gem. Also, how do you know if you've the same tastes as a reviewer? They might not enjoy sketch comedy, that might be what you love. In short, take risks - you might be surprised!

Word of mouth can be a good way of discovering what is hilarious - whilst you're standing in a queue or at a bar why not ask other people what they enjoyed watching? (Be careful you don't ask venue staff or people flyering though as they'll likely plug their own shows!) As the month goes on buzz will build around the best productions - this is a great reason not to book too much in advance, so you can leave time to fit seeing the un-expected hit into your schedule.

A couple of side notes about your time in the city:

Be aware that Edinburgh is a big place and it's about 30 minutes walking time between the North (where The Stand and Assembly Room venues are) and George Square (in the South, where many of the other big venues are), so don't book tickets for shows at different venues without leaving enough travel time.

Dress wisely: the venues can get very hot if it's sunny, or you could get soaked if Scotland's weather is deciding to revert to stereotype. There are lots of hills, slopes, steps and uneven surfaces in the historic city too, so be prepared.

Pace yourself: it can be a long day, so make sure you leave time to eat and drink. The festival is very hustle-and-bustle so maybe take a few hours out. The book Secret Edinburgh, written by comedians, has some great tips on where to go to unwind, and the best places to eat.

How to get there

So you're tempted to check out the Edinburgh Festival? Here are your main options for getting there...

Car: With this option you can travel in your own time and with as much luggage as you want. Of course, it depends on where you live as to how long you'd be behind the wheel. From the South it can take a full two days out of your holiday getting there and back (about 7 hours from London as a benchmark). You also need to find somewhere to park - which is harder than it sounds. It seems every street in Edinburgh has double yellow lines or requires a permit.

Train: This is probably the most popular choice, with Edinburgh well connected to the rest of the country by rail. As you're no doubt aware, train tickets are never as reasonably priced as they should be, but the further ahead you book the better value they are. There are a number of stations in the city - Edinburgh Waverley is the largest and busiest, serving both the East and West Coast Main Lines.

Fly: You may be surprised to discover the cost of flying is in-line with getting the train. A return from the South with a no-frills carrier can even beat the train fares at times - but there's the faff of going through security, which is a downside. When you get to Edinburgh Airport there is now a brand new tram link into the city centre. After years of hearing jokes about the delayed project, we're looking forward to trying it for the first time.

Where to stay

With tens of thousands of extra visitors in the city in August (not to mention all the performers needing beds too), prices for rooms are sky high. Your accommodation costs will probably be your biggest single outlay. Your main options are as follows.

Hostel: This is the cheapest option, but it does mean sleeping in a room with lots of other people. Falling asleep in the same room as strangers doesn't appeal to us particularly we must admit, especially given that it's a festival so likely some of your fellow bunkmates will have been drinking.

Hotel / bed & breakfast: This is the classier way to stay and wake up fresh, but the demand for rooms is very high. Expect to pay more than you would in another city. At the time of writing (beginning of July), a comparison site shows the average price is over 200 a night.

Rent a spare room / house: A slightly different option is to rent a spare room (or a whole property). Some enterprising residents offer up their spare rooms (or even in some cases go on holiday for the month so as to leave their home empty). As Edinburgh is a university city, there are plenty of student rooms not in use for the month. Gumtree.com is one of the sites people list their available rooms on. Be aware of scams though - there's probably a whole article to be written on what you need to watch out for, but essentially make sure to ask lots of questions in advance of handing over any money, including asking to see their landlord documentation proving they are able to rent it to you.

Have a great time!

With any luck you found this an interesting and useful guide. If you have any general questions or feel we didn't address a topic do email us. We'll email you back and add a paragraph here to help others too.

And finally, we hope you have a great time at the Fringe! Once you've seen a show, do log on to our site, find the listing, and leave a review so we know what you thought of it. This will help other people working out whether to see the show or not too. See you there!

List of 2014 shows