EDINBURGH residents left frazzled by the Fringe are snapping up passive-aggressive T-shirts aimed at getting tourists out of their way.
The bright yellow garments are emblazoned with the slogan: “Please, MOVE, I live here.”
In a bid to make sure on Edinburgh residents wear the £20 T-shirts, they are delivered free to anyone with an EH postcode. Outsiders have to pay a £30 delivery charge.
Edinburgh firm Print By Hand created the T-shirt to help locals navigate their city during August, when the world’s largest arts festival comes to town.
The firm states: “This is a local shirt, for local people, or, you know, for un-local people who’re happy to spend 50 sheets on a hand printed t-shirt and pretend to be local people.
“The good people of Edinburgh put up with quite enough during August, prices soar for everything from accommodation to yoghurt, well not with us, no ma’am, no sir, not today, not here!”
Their “manifesto for August reads: “We will not charge anything for postage and packaging within the EH postcode area.
“We will use the exact same postage and packaging materials that we do for the rest of the world.
“We reserve the right to put sweeties in the packages sent to the EH postcode area.”
The description goes on to say that the t-shirt is aimed at “patient and polite locals of Edinburgh”.
It reads: “The world’s largest arts festival is held for the whole month of August every year in Edinburgh.
“As the population of the city doubles space is at a premium, not least in the aisles of Tesco or on the pavements of the Scotland’s compact capital.
“This t-shirt is for the patient and polite locals of Edinburgh, to help them navigate through the crowds with greater ease.
“Of course we cannot guarantee that people outside of Edinburgh will not buy this t-shirt, but shipping outwith the EH postcode area is £30 per t-shirt to discourage such abuses.”
Images of the t-shirt have circulated on social media – attracting praise from hundreds of Scots.
Luke Skipper wrote: “This is awesome. Where can I acquire this and why wasn’t I told about this sooner frankly.
“I feel this should be distributed as part of our council tax to all #Edinburgh residents to survive #FestivalHELL.”
Matt Thorne said: “Far too polite.”
Mike McGrail wrote: “Nice! When I was 18 (year 2000), I printed a bunch of t-shirts that ‘said f*** your flyers, I’m a local’ and sold them up and down the royal mile.
“They went fast! I do love the Fringe though.”
Ahmed Khalifa said: “The only thing that is missing is a flashing arrow pointing to your t-shirt.”
A Twitter user, known as @LordWoolamaloo said: “I do the Human Snowplough to get through Old Town crowds.”
And another user, @sallyld wrote: “Fab – but what happens when you’re behind people and walking into them when they slow down (or stop abruptly)? I’ve not done that every day so far this month.”
Esteban Garza, who lives in Amsterdam, also commented saying: “I need one for Amsterdam (any day of the year) too.”
The company responded saying if they would print them and ship to Amsterdam if there is demand for them.
Despite all the grumbling, the Edinburgh festivals are reckoned to give the Scottish economy as a whole a boost of £313m annually.
But in 2008, Veteran impresario and Fringe pioneer Richard Demarco condemned crowded August schedule for stifling events in Edinburgh.
The art and theatre impresario urged Edinburgh arts chiefs to drop their “obsession with August” and undertake a major reorganisation of the summer festival season.
Earlier this year, a dossier released by the Edinburgh City Council, entitled Managing Our Festival City, reveals the extent of the issues that tourism has brought to the city.
Nicholas Hotham from Edinburgh World Heritage said: “We feel that the needs of Edinburgh’s fragile and vulnerable Old Town are not fully recognised.
“This is a community which feels under threat and often overlooked, and specific measures will need to be taken to ensure that the heart of the city remains a vibrant and pleasant place to live as well as visit.”
The report on the findings of surveys of more than 5000 residents, said: “Six per cent of participants now believe the festivals make Edinburgh a worse place to live.
“This indicator has increased each year for the last five years, from less than half of one per cent when it was first measured.”
Earlier this week, posters emerged on lampposts in Barcelona calling on British tourists to jump off balconies.
The shameful campaign was launched by “imbeciles who want to scare tourists away” according to furious social media users.
