´óÏó´«Ã½

At this stage of the Fringe, the only thing most performers have to worry about is keeping awake.

A week of late nights and early starts and mixed reviews and trawling the Royal Mile for customers take their toll.

But the Fringe's malfunctioning box office means they have a lot more to worry about.

Claims by the Fringe that it's "all sorted" seem far off the mark if you talk to any of the performers.

I've found countless examples of performers who've found the Fringe is billing their show as "sold out" when it's not. The only reason they've known is that friends or family have reported back later.

Michael Edwards tells me his first performance of Harold Pinter's Moonlight had just 15 people in the audience.

The company just assumed it was because of the weather and the credit crunch, but later discovered it was being described as "sold out" at the fringe box office.

Paul Hyu, who's appearing as Chinese Elvis at Club West, says he takes down names as part of his act, so he knew afterwards exactly who hadn't got in because they'd been told the show was full.

Like other performers at the venue, he says he's furious that the very organisation he's paying, is failing to keep its side of the bargain.

Club West also admit they lost an entire show because of the debacle. A Korean company who planned to bring a major new work to Edinburgh were so concerned about poor advance sales, they decided to abandon the idea. A worrying trend for a festival which prides itself on international contributions.

St Ninian's Hall already have the hurdle of persuading audiences to travel out of the city centre to Comliebank - but they too have had poor advance sales.

Venue manager Simon Peer says their production of Blue Remembered Hills is genuinely selling out now - but he reckons he lost around 300 advance ticket sales because of the Box Office.

The scale of the problem may never be known - even if the Fringe records record sales at the end of this festival, how will you know how many people failed to get to get tickets, or bought tickets for alternative shows. Or avoided the Fringe all together?

Most of the bigger venues say it's a storm in a teacup - but then again, they have their own box offices.

Gilchrist Muir - whose show is at the Gilded Balloon - says if he'd been at any of the smaller venues, he's convinced it would have been a huge problem.

"I think it does damage the image of the Fringe, not just with the ticket buying public but with companies like ours. I don't know if I'd trust the Fringe any more," he said.

The Fringe Society - who hold their AGM on Saturday - have already announced their intention to hold an independent inquiry into the Box Office problems.

Their board is made up of 14 directors - who stay on the board for three years at a time.

But as most performers point out, if it doesn't report back till September, it's of little use to anyone appearing at this year's festival who have to muddle through for the next two weeks.

Expect lots of questions at Saturday's meeting - not least, what on earth is the Fringe Society for?