A Festive career launch in Edinburgh

I spent yesterday afternoon enjoying the atmosphere on the opening Sunday of the Edinburgh Festival. It's always one of my favourite times of year as there is such a feelgood factor in the city (unless you are trying to negotiate the traffic).
   The Festival is renowned as a launch pad for aspiring actors and comedians, but it was also the starting point for my own career in the media. In the late 1970s I spent my summer holidays writing reviews for publications like City Lynx and Festival Times, not only enjoying myself immensely but also providing an education in print production and a vital stash of cuttings, both of which helped me no end when it came to applying for 'real' jobs - hence my start as a graduate trainee reporter on the Scotsman.

I wasn't the only one in this position. Here is the cast list for 1979, a motley crew who not only wrote crisp copy but also spent long nights pasting up galleys and laying out pages, selling the paper around Edinburgh bars (it cost 15p) and generally getting into the thick of things.
   Not being the type to throw things away, I still have every copy of Festival Times from that year, and the tickets and programmes from the shows I saw - people like Joe Jackson, John Cooper Clarke and Rowan Atkinson who became household names (I have to confess I didn't give the latter a particularly good review).
   I was responsible for 'Rock and Side Shows', and while the idea of me being a rock journalist beggars belief, the role was priceless as it came with a little laminated press pass which would get me free entry to the many concerts and clubs around town.
   There are a few other names in the credits who also made careers in journalism, PR and media. Which all goes to show that unpaid experience in the summer can be vitally important to your future career prospects.