After the international festival, then the fringe festival, and the book festival and the film festival, you might have thought the last thing Edinburgh needed was more, er, festivals. Especially in August.
But clearly capitalising on a captive audience, today saw the inaugural Scottish Festival of Politics, taking place at Holyrood - the new(ish) Scottish parliament.
Despite a "where politics meets the people" tagline, the programme has a distinctly dry, worthy and establishment air about it. Highlights look like being appearances by Andrew Marr, the Scottish former BBC political editor, and Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, although the ever-passionate Vanessa Redgrave on human rights may prove the most dramatic moment.
Aside from that, it is distincly slim pickings unless you're already in Edinburgh for one of the other festivals - a chance to find out What Has Devolution Done for Animals. Or a quiz on the precise powers of your local council, anyone?
Of course, some would point out that Scotland has already had its own Festival of Politics this year, when the leaders of the world's eight richest nations met at Gleneagles to debate climate change and Africa, and some 400,000 non-wonks turned up to urge them to do more.
