Self-promotion is a work of art at the Edinburgh Festival, where every August the Royal Mile gets overrun by a scrum of hopefuls, all desperate to get bums on seats, writes Paul Fleckney.

Among the throng this year is Something Else, a theatre group from East Molesey, who are performing a comedy called Rabbit.

Ten metres of fur, hundreds of playing cards and a spot of muscle-building is their route to getting noticed. Katie Walker, one of the group's founders explains: "We're going to carry one of the group down the Royal Mile dressed as a giant rabbit and handing out rabbit tails to people.

"We have also had packs of playing cards printed with the artwork from our flyer on the back. We'll dress up as magicians and bunny girls and pretend to play a card trick on people, then when we turn the card over we explain about the show.

"It is a bit different to normal flyers so hopefully people will remember us."

With more than 17,000 artists and 28,000 performances lighting up 261 venues at this year's festival, it is no wonder they're willing to go to such lengths.

The rules are different at the Edinburgh Fringe. At its mid- afternoon peak, Lily Savage could stilt-walk down the Royal Mile juggling chainsaws and not get noticed.

"The actual shows often don't really stand out," says Katie, "so whoever promotes themselves the best will get the most people going along."

Something Else helped to raise the thousands of pounds needed to put on the show by helping the public pack their shopping at supermarkets.

The money was gratefully received, too, as rarely do comedians and actors make a profit out of their Edinburgh experiences.

Rabbit is a dark comedy by Australian author Brendan Cowell about a dysfunctional family steeped in drugs - the title stems from the alcoholic mother, who wants to cook up a rabbit for Sunday lunch.

Katie explains that, other than the humour, it is the show's message which attracted the group.

"It is a really positive play. Even though it's about drugs it makes you laugh and it shows you how important it is to love and appeciate your family."

Since forming Something Else with David Moss last year, Katie has been in Hampton performing shows such as Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw.

Katie herself produced an unconventional version of Romeo and Juliet, which had just 12 characters and some resourceful stage tricks - the bed turned into a balcony - to bring Shakespeare to youngsters.

Both Katie and David have previous experience at Edinburgh; he was a director last year, while she has produced a show and acted in a musical: "The atmosphere was amazing. My first year was in 2004, I thought it would be like a festival in a field, I had no idea that it took over the whole city."

And if you aren't lucky enough to be heading to Edinburgh during August, Something Else are planning a post-festival perfomance in Walton.

Rabbit will be at Edinburgh's Ccubed venue until August 28.