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will be leaving the comforts of his Radio 2 studio this week to bring you a very special edition of his show from The Edinburgh Festival.

Throughout August the Scottish capital throws open its doors (quite literally in some cases) to performers from the worlds of music, theatre and comedy for the Festival and its not-so-little sister, The Edinburgh Fringe.

The city will be packed full of talent already, but we'll be bringing even more to the mix with Nicholas Parsons, Shappi Khorsandi, Jason Byrne, Katy Brand, Jan Ravens, Colin Cloud, Milton Jones, Clive Anderson and Mike McShane in the studio and live session from Texas and newcomer Betsy.

But before we set down in Edinburgh, here are six exceptionally fascinating Factoids about The Edinburgh Festival. Watch out for that volcano.

If you need some idea of the combined scale of the Edinburgh Festivals, the event attracts more than 4.5 million people every year. That's the same as another event called The World Cup. You may have heard of it.

In fact, The Edinburgh Festival is second only to the Olympic Games in terms of attendees.

And (mostly) because of the festival, Edinburgh is the second most-visited city in the UK for international travellers, after London.

Volcanoes are not really something British people need to worry about (we've got quite enough on our plates TBH), but that wasn't always the case.

Edinburgh Castle is built on top of a 350 million year old volcano - extinct of course. It's not alone; Arthur's Seat (one of Edinburgh's most famous hills) is also an extinct volcano.

The castle was built in the 12th century but archaeologists have found evidence of people living on the site from as far back as second century. So yes, it's pretty old.

Justin Bieber recently cancelled the remaining dates of his world tour. In comparison, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo hasn't cancelled a single performance in its 67 year history. It was started in 1950 and come rain, come shine, come apocalyptic Scottish storms, the band has played on - and on.

There are Tattoo performances every weekday evening and two on a Saturday during August and more than 14 million people have attended these performances in its history.

How long do you have to spend in Edinburgh for the fringe festival? Most people visit for a few days to soak up the performances and a bit of the culture, but if you watched every performance scheduled at the Fringe, you'd be there for five years. There are 50,000 performances scheduled, so expect a very numb bum.

Not every performance takes place in a traditional theatre venue either. You can find performances in a swimming pool, performer's homes and even public toilets.

Anyone can put on a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe, which is one of the reasons why it draws performers of all kinds to the event and why so many unique spaces are used as performance spaces.

In fact, the Edinburgh Fringe started almost entirely by accident. In 1947, eight theatre companies showed up uninvited at the Edinburgh Festival and put on their own shows at the edge of the city.

It has grown from something of a sideshow to a 25 day event which is almost as big a draw as the original festival - which focuses on established talent rather than the rising stars you can see at the fringe.

If you want to see the stars of the future, then Edinburgh Fringe is one for you. Some of the biggest names in comedy tried their luck at the fringe before hitting the big time.

Mike Myers, Steve Coogan, Miranda Hart, Emma Thompson, Graham Norton and Mel & Sue are just a few of the acts who some lucky people caught performing at the event before their careers took them towards the A-list.

In 2013, an unknown actress called Phoebe Waller Bridge performed her one-woman show Fleabag at the fringe. It became an award-winning 成人论坛 television show and Phoebe will be performing the show at the Fringe again in 2017.

Listen to Steve Wright, live from The Edinburgh Festival, from 2-5pm on Friday 4 August 2017