Kath Mainland is the boss in Edinburgh

Kath Mainland, with cropped short dark hair and a craggy Scottish accent, doesn't seem like the typical image of a culture manager. But the Orkney woman, who turns 40 this year, is ten days into running the Edinburgh Fringe, which she described as "the most brilliant arts administration job in the world" in The Scotsman.

The Fringe began in 1947 with several theatre groups arriving uninvited to the main Edinburgh Festival. This year's Fringe offers more than 30,000 performances with almost 20,000 participants. And Mainland has quite a challenge after last year's event which saw sales drop by 10 percent when the ticket booking system collapsed. But despite the recession she's upbeat about her plans, which include an improved booking system.

Running the Fringe, which she describes as an "enormous explosion of culture", must be easy compared with some of her more controversial activities — like throwing a rowdy Christian Slater out of an Edinburgh pub on his birthday. "Oh, that was an easy decision," she insists.