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Critics have predicted the decline of the Fringe for well over a decade now.

The recession, the size of the event and competition from other festivals are all cited as factors.

But far from declining, the Fringe continues to expand - up by 17% on the number of shows staged last year.

The wee canapés on offer at the launch are in marked contrast to the bizarre feast that the Fringe has become.

From the big brand names - Alan Cumming, Dizzee Rascal, Paul Merton to the unusual combinations - Scottish Opera and burlesque specialists to Club Noir.

Exotic delicacies sit, waiting to be tried, alongside the more predictable fare which is served up every year.

Choose carefully - cultural indigestion is no laughing matter.

Obvious highlights so far - although with a telephone directory sized programme, it'll take weeks to read it all - include Unfinished Business, a new play about the Lockerbie disaster and Fair Trade, a new Emma Thompson backed play about sex trafficking in Britain.

The Wire's Clark Peters returns with his show Five Guys Named Moe and Scottish company Grid Iron return to the festival with an earlier hit
- Decky Does a bronco - which is set in a swingpark.

It's not just the artists who're broadening their horizons.

One of the fringe's longest-standing promoters William Burdett Coutts of Assembly Theatre will celebrate his 30th year at the festival by branching into Princes Street Gardens.

Not just the Ross bandstand either, but a third spiegeltent, with space for 500, and a new social hub in the heart of the city.

And don't forget the enthusiastic amateurs who'll make their debut at this year's Fringe, some from the most unlikely quarters.

After decades of performing Flanders and Swann's hippopotamus song in private, Cardinal Keith o'brien, leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland has decided to go public.

He'll perform the number with The Really Terrible Orchestra at a performance in the Metropolitan Cathedral in August.

While some may raise an eyebrow at such a senior cleric appearing in the midst of this sprawling, uncensored smorgasbord (alongside shows like Spank and I Was A Teenage Rent Boy) he has a simple explanation.

"I've witnessed the Fringe all these years and watched more and more people coming along and more and more people joining in. The RTO asked me and I suppose that makes me their RTS - a really terrible singer- but that's fine by me."