During the Edinburgh Fringe festival, UK Minibuses went beyond merely attending the festival’s events. We have found a new way to move groups through the festival’s hectic atmosphere and to make it easier to find one another—even if you have to try harder to find them than you would to find Waldo in a crowd of street performers!
We created time-sensitive shuttle services that allowed larger groups to move from one venue to another without losing their place in line, developed new routes for venue-hopping, and established emergency plans to pick up lost members of a group. And we did this all in less time than it takes your group chat to reach a decision about which type of show you want to attend (just kidding—by the time you decide, you have already missed both).
Instead of scattering, we bring groups together in a convoy! Logistics for Fringe, but with a focus on preserving friendships!
With the help of a team of Festival veterans (they have the same level of energy as a military extraction team, but with much better banter), UK Minibuses navigates and coordinates the entire August Edinburgh experience as if we had backstage access to the entire Royal Mile!
We’ve seen it all when it comes to losing your group members, we’ve fixed all the confusion at venues, and if someone in your group wanders off toward a street performer, we build in extra time just for that!
Fringe Navigation Survival Pack
Rule #1: It sounds so charming to walk between shows but that’s before you realise you’ve speed-hiked up Calton Hill in a suit because your friend’s comedy show was “only 5 minutes away” – which translates to 25 minutes of vertical hiking through a traffic jam of bagpipers.
UK Minibuses’s minivans should be used as a mobile base. Position the vans centrally and shuttle to groups of venues to pick up stragglers who got caught up in a food search and ended up in a pop-up circus in Cowgate. We’ll show you which streets are closed at 6pm, where to go to avoid traffic jams on the Royal Mile and where coaches can park without blocking the path of flaming fire jugglers.
People Ignore the Math
10 People walking between Underbelly and Summerhall: 40 minutes, including two wrong turns, and an emotional breakdown for one person when their phone ran out between all that time taken to get lost.
10 People inside an UK Minibuses minibus: 8 minutes, with no one getting injured, and all being able to make it on time for dinner and showtime, and will not hate one another by arriving at showtime.
Genuine Fringe Scenarios We Have Resolved
After a 9:45 p.m. there is a Race to the Gilded Balloon at – 10 p.m. which is performed at the Assembly Rooms.
Picking up clients in emergency situations when the show is delayed, and there are only 12 minutes before their next appointment.
Two a.m. after a comedy marathon extraction after all the taxis have mysteriously vanished.
Festival groups that use UK Minibuses for scheduling receive 89% fewer “where are you” messages, which has proven to reduce the level of toxicity within group text chats.
The city of Edinburgh during the Fringe looks like a logistical war zone in a kilt.
Find a better way to navigate and make sure everyone arrives together and stays friends afterward.