Edinburgh Festival Days 13 & 14: Festival Eye

IN THE poster wars which break out each year between the big PR companies, smaller performers are often caught in the crossfire. One such sucked into last year's vitriolic battle was comedian Ian Cognito. His solution to being pasted out of sight again has been to spend his entire advertising budget, pounds 400, on one poster which occupies a whole billboard near the Fringe Club. So paranoid has Cognito become that he visits his poster each day, sometimes with a picnic, and has inserted razor blades round the rim of the board to deter saboteurs.

Thea Vidale tops the bill in the first of two unscheduled Aids benefits in the coming week. Tomorrow she will appear with Mark Thomas, Jo Brand and others at 11.30pm at the Traverse. Ned Sherrin and Simon Fanshawe will host a second benefit, with a line-up including Lily Savage, Mark Little and the Comedy Store Players, on Tuesday at 10pm at the Big Top on the Meadows. Tickets at pounds 10 are available from the Traverse and the Assembly Rooms respectively. All proceeds will go to Scottish Aids charities.