Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

A street performer on the High Street in 2010
Genre Arts festival
Dates 2016: 5–29 August (exact dates vary each year)
Location(s) Edinburgh
Country Scotland
Years active 1947–present
Founded 1947
Website
edfringe.com

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (often referred to as simply The Fringe) is the world's largest arts festival, which in 2015, spanned 25 days and featured 50,459 performances of 3,314 shows in 313 venues.[1] Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August.[1]

It is an open access (or "unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children's shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions and events. Comedy is the largest section and the one that in modern times has the highest public profile, due in part to the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, which have launched the careers of many household names of British comedy. The Fringe has often showcased experimental, challenging or controversial works that might not be invited to a more conservative arts festival.

The Festival is supported by the Festival Fringe Society, which publishes the programme, sells tickets to all events from a central physical box office and website, and offers year-round advice and support to performers. The Society's permanent location is at the Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile, and in August they also manage Fringe Central, a separate collection of spaces in Appleton Tower and other University of Edinburgh buildings, dedicated to providing support for Fringe participants during their time at the festival.

The Fringe Board of Directors is drawn from members of the Festival Fringe Society, who are often Fringe participants themselves – performers or administrators. Elections are held once a year, in August, and Board members serve a term of three years. The Board appoints the Fringe CEO (formerly known as the Fringe Administrator or Director) and operates under the chairmanship of a well-known public personality. The current chair of the board is Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea,[2] and the current Chief Executive is Shona McCarthy.[3]

History

1971 Festival Fringe Club Membership Card

Early years

The Fringe started life when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With the "official" festival using the city's major venues, these companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their productions. Seven performed in Edinburgh, and one undertook a version of the medieval morality play "Everyman" in Dunfermline Abbey, about 20 miles north, across the River Forth in Fife. These groups aimed to take advantage of the large assembled theatre crowds to showcase their own alternative theatre. Although at the time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

This meant that two defining features of the future Fringe were established at the very beginning – the lack of official invitations to perform and the use of unconventional venues.[4] Originally, these groups referred to themselves as the "Festival Adjuncts"[5] and were also referred to as the "semi-official" festival[6] It was not until the following year, 1948, that Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, is credited with coining the title "Fringe" when he wrote during the second Edinburgh International Festival:

Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before ... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!.[7]

The word "fringe" had in fact been used in a review of Everyman in 1947, when a critic remarked it was a shame the show was so far out "on the fringe of the Festival".[8] In 1950, it was still being referred to in similar terms, with a small 'f':[9]

On the fringe of the official Festival there are many praiseworthy "extras," including presentations by the Scottish Community Drama Association and Edinburgh University Dramatic Society – Dundee Courier, 24 August 1950

The Fringe did not benefit from any official organisation until 1951, when students of the University of Edinburgh set up a drop-in centre in the YMCA, where cheap food and a bed for the night were made available to participating groups.

It was a few years before an official programme for the Fringe was created. John Menzies compiled a list of shows under the title "Other Events" in their omnibus festival brochure, but it was printer C.J. Cousland who was the first to publish a listings guide, in 1954.[8] This was funded by participating companies and was entitled "Additional Entertainments", since the name "Fringe" was still not yet in regular usage. It also used a strange cover motif.[8]

By that year, the Fringe was attracting around a dozen companies, and a meeting was held to discuss creating "a small organisation to act as a brain for the Fringe", or what The Scotsman called an "official unofficial festival".[10] A first attempt was made to provide a central booking service in 1955[11] by students from the university, although it lost money, which was blamed on those who had not taken part.[10]

Formal organisation progressed in 1959, with the formation of the Festival Fringe Society. The push for such an organisation was led by Michael Imison, director of Oxford Theatre Group.[12] A constitution was drawn up, in which the policy of not vetting or censoring shows was set out, and the Society produced the first guide to Fringe shows. Nineteen companies participated in the Fringe in that year.

Not long after came the first complaints that the Fringe had become too big. Director Gerard Slevin claimed in 1961 that "it would be much better if only ten halls were licensed".[13]

1960s to 1980s

The artistic credentials of the Fringe were established by the creators of the Traverse Theatre, John Calder, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco, in 1963.[14] While their original objective was to maintain something of the Festival atmosphere in Edinburgh all year round, the Traverse Theatre quickly and regularly presented cutting-edge drama to an international audience at both the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe during August. It set a standard to which other companies on the Fringe aspired. The Traverse is occasionally referred to as "The Fringe venue that got away", reflecting its current status as a permanent and integral part of the Edinburgh arts scene.

The Pleasance, a venue since the first year of the Fringe, was also important in setting the artistic tone. Christopher Richardson, founder of the Pleasance Theatre Trust, became a major Fringe figure.[14]

Over the first two decades of the Fringe, each performing group used its own performing space, or venue. However, by the late 1960s, the concept of sharing a venue became popular, principally as a means of cutting costs. It soon became common for halls to host up to six or seven different shows per day. The obvious next step was to partition a venue into two or more performing spaces; the majority of today's major venues fit into this category.

Problems then began to arise as the Fringe became too big for students and volunteers to deal with. Eventually in 1969, the Fringe Society became a constituted body, and in 1970 it employed its first administrator, John Milligan, who stayed until 1976.[11]

Between 1976 and 1981, under the direction of Alistair Moffat, the number of companies performing rose from 182 to 494, thus the Fringe ascended to its current position as the largest arts festival in the world. At this point, the Fringe operated on only two full-time members of staff.

The professionalism of venues and of organisations greatly increased alongside this. In 1975, the church hall at Lauriston Place, used by Edinburgh University Theatre Company as Bedlam Theatre, was taken over by Richard Crane and Faynia Williams from the University of Bradford to house "Satan's Ball".

The early 1980s saw the arrival of the "super-venue" – locations that contained multiple performing spaces. By 1981 when William Burdett-Coutts set up the Assembly Theatre in the empty Georgian building Assembly Rooms on George Street (formerly the EIF Festival Club), the investment in staging, lighting and sound meant that the original amateur or student theatricals were left behind.

The following year, The Circuit was prominent; it was in fact a "tented village", situated on a piece of empty ground popularly known as "The Hole in The Ground". This was once the site of a church building (Poole's Synod Hall), which was converted to a cinema, and where the Saltire complex was subsequently built in the early 1990s. The new Traverse Theatre opened here in 1993.

There was still theatre done on a shoestring, but several cultural entrepreneurs had raised the stakes to the point where a venue like Aurora (St Stephen's Church, Stockbridge) could hold its head up in any major world festival.

In 1988 the Society moved from 170 High Street to its current expanded headquarters on the Royal Mile.

1990s and 2000s

John Bishop performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Eclecticism ruled the 1990s with acts like The Jim Rose Circus and Tokyo Shock Boys.

A computerised booking system was first installed in the early 1990s, allowing tickets to be bought at a number of locations around the city. The internet began to have an impact in 2000 with the launch of the Fringe's official website, which sold over half a million tickets online by 2005. The following year, a Half Price Ticket Tent, run in association with Metro newspaper, started offering special ticket prices for different shows each day. This sold 45,000 tickets in its first year.

In 2008, the Fringe faced the biggest crisis in its history when the computerised ticketing system failed. The events surrounding the failed box office software led to the resignation of Fringe Director Jon Morgan after only one full year in post. The resultant financial loss suffered by the Fringe Society was estimated at £300,000, which it was forced to meet from its reserves. These events attracted much comment from the UK and world media. More debts emerged as the year went on, and an independent report criticised the Board and the current and previous Fringe Directors for a failure of management and an inability to provide the basic service. The Board eventually decided that the post of "Director" (instituted in 1992 in lieu of "Fringe Administrator") would be abolished and replaced by a Chief Executive, to reinforce the Fringe head's basic administrative function. A report into the failure was commissioned from accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff.[15]

Several venues now use their own ticketing systems; this is partly due to issues of commissions and how ticket revenue is distributed,[15] but was reinforced by this 2008 failure of the main box office. In 2008, Fringe Sunday – a vast free showcase of events held on The Meadows – was cancelled when a sponsor could not be secured.[16] After an interim period, during which Tim Hawkins, formerly General Manager of Brighton Komedia took charge, the established Edinburgh Book Festival and Fringe manager Kath Mainland was appointed in February 2009 to stabilise the situation, becoming the Fringe's first Chief Executive.

In 2009, theSpaceUK launched[17] their multi-space complex at the Royal College of Surgeons. In 2011, a new all-year-round multi-arts festival venue, containing ten performance spaces, opened in the former Royal (Dick) Veterinary School under the name Summerhall.

The Fringe today

In 2016, Shona McCarthy, who had led Derry-Londonderry's term as UK City of Culture, took over from Kath Mainland as Chief Executive.[3]

Venues

Assembly Rooms and Box Office, 2013
The Udderbelly, 2013
The Pleasance Courtyard, 2013
Box Office for the Assembly, George Square venue, 2013
Summerhall arts hub, 2013

Fringe venues come in all shapes and sizes, with use being made of nearly any viable space that is available, from regular theatres (e.g. the Traverse or Bedlam Theatre), function rooms (e.g. the Assembly Rooms), churches and church halls (e.g. the Quaker Meeting House, Paradise in Augustines[18]), lecture theatres (George Square Theatre), conference centres, other university rooms and spaces, bars and pubs, temporary structures (The Famous Spiegeltent and the Udderbelly), schools, a public toilet, the back of a taxi, a double-decker bus and even in the audience's own homes.[19]

The groups that operate the venues are also diverse: some are commercial and others not-for-profit; some operate year-round, while others exist only to run venues at the Fringe. Some are local, others are based in London and elsewhere and transfer to Edinburgh for August.

From the performers' perspective, the decision on where to perform is typically based on a mixture of cost, location (close proximity to the main Fringe hubs around the University is seen as an advantage), and the philosophy of the venue – some of whom specialise in amateur, school or college productions, some of whom are semi or wholly professional.

According to the Fringe Society, there were 258 venues in 2011, although over 80 of them housed events or exhibitions, which are not part of the main performing art genres that the Fringe is generally known for.

The main venue operators can broadly be split into four groups:

There also continue to be single, independent venues, sometimes only hosting one show, sometimes only for a limited period.

Shows

Notable shows

Edinburgh has spawned many notable original shows and helped establish the careers of many writers and performers, including Rowan Atkinson, Steven Berkoff, Jo Brand, Billy Connolly, Ben Elton, Eddie Izzard and Tadeusz Kantor.[14]

In 1960, Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Beyond the Fringe, introducing a new wave of British satire and heralding a change in attitudes towards politicians and the establishment. Ironically, this show was put together by the Edinburgh International Festival as a rebuff to the emerging Fringe. But its title alone helped publicise "the Fringe", especially when it went on to London's West End and New York's Broadway for the next 12 months.[25]

Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was first performed in its full version at the 1966 Fringe.[26]

It has also launched or advanced the careers of a number of noted actors, such as Derek Jacobi, who starred in a sixth-form production of Hamlet, which was very well regarded.[27]

During the 1980s, the Fringe attracted a number of major touring companies. Joint Stock Theatre Company, a leading innovative touring company at that time, brought two productions to the Fringe – The Great Celestial Cow by Sue Townsend and Fire in the Lake by Karim Alrawi.

In 1986, the Fringe saw the break-out performance of Craig Ferguson as "Bing Hitler", a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland.[28]

In the 21st century shows that have debuted at the Fringe and then gone on to wider fame (or notoriety) include Stomp (theatrical show), Black Watch by the National Theatre of Scotland, and Jerry Springer: The Opera.[14]

2003 saw a very successful production of 12 Angry Men staged at the Assembly Rooms using established comedians in the roles of the twelve jurors. It starred Owen O'Neill in the role made famous by Henry Fonda, Juror No. 8. Stephen Frost, Phil Nichol and Bill Bailey also featured.[29]

A 2004 version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was beset by problems, including the lead actor Christian Slater contracting chicken pox and the original director, Guy Masterson, quitting the project before it opened. Masterson was replaced by Terry Johnson.[30]

In 2005, a production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple starring Bill Bailey and Alan Davies was staged at the Assembly Hall, the meeting place on the Mound of the Church of Scotland. This had been taken over by Assembly Theatre and transformed into an 840-seat theatre.[31]

The Tattoo set-up at Edinburgh Castle served as the 6,000-seat venue for a one-off performance by Ricky Gervais of his stand-up show Fame in 2007. Gervais was accused of greed[32] and taking audiences away from smaller shows. Gervais donated the profits from the show to Macmillan Cancer Support. [33]

Showcases

It is possible to sample shows before committing to a full performance. For many years, the Fringe Club (variously in the High Street from 1971 and at Teviot Row House from 1981) provided nightly showcases of Fringe fare to allow audiences to sample shows. In its earlier years it provided a significant space for after-hours socialising at a time when Edinburgh's strict licensing laws meant a 10pm pub closing time. The Fringe Club ceased operation in 2004, and various venues still provide "the Best of the Fest" and similar.

The best opportunity to sample shows used to be afforded by Fringe Sunday, started in the High Street in 1981 and moved through pressure of popularity to Holyrood Park in 1983. Fringe Sunday was held on the second Sunday of the Fringe when companies performed for free. Having outgrown even Holyrood Park, this showcase took place on The Meadows until 2008. Alternatively, on any day during the Fringe the pedestrianised area of the High Street around St Giles' Cathedral and the Fringe Office becomes the focal point for theatre companies to hand out flyers, perform scenes from their shows, and attempt to sell tickets. Many shows are "2 for 1" on the opening weekend of the Festival.

Fringe legacy

Street performer in the High Street in 2013
A street performer on High Street advertising for a show, 2013

The concept of fringe theatre has been copied around the world. The largest and most celebrated of these spawned festivals are Adelaide Fringe Festival, National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, and Edmonton International Fringe Festival. The number of such events continues to grow, particularly in the USA and Canada. In the case of Edinburgh, the Fringe is an addition to the Festival proper, being officailly known as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Where there is no pre-existing Festival to be added to – such as New York (est. 1997) – or where the festival is more "fringe" than anything else, the word comes before the word "festival", thus the "Adelaide Fringe Festival." (est. 1979).

In the field of drama, the Edinburgh Fringe has premièred several plays, most notably Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1966) and Moscow Stations (1994) which starred Tom Courtenay. Over the years, it has attracted a number of companies that have made repeated visits to the Fringe, and in doing so helped to set high artistic standards. They have included: the London Club Theatre Group (1950s), 7:84 Scotland (1970s), the Children's Music Theatre, later the National Youth Music Theatre under Jeremy James Taylor, the National Student Theatre Company (from the 1970s), Communicado (1980s and 1990s), Red Shift (1990s), Grid Iron and Fitchburg State University. The Fringe is also the staging ground of the American High School Theatre Festival.

In the field of comedy, the Fringe has provided a platform that has allowed the careers of many performers to bloom. In the 1960s, various members of the Monty Python team appeared in student productions, as subsequently did Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, the latter three with the 1981 Cambridge Footlights. Atkinson was at Oxford. Notable companies in the 1980s have included Complicite and the National Theatre of Brent. More recent comedy performers to have been 'discovered' include Rory Bremner, Fascinating Aïda, Reduced Shakespeare Company, Steve Coogan, Jenny Eclair, The League of Gentlemen, Flight of the Conchords, Al Murray and Rich Hall.

People

Officials and administrators

The first chair of the board of directors was Lord Grant, a High Court judge, who gave way in 1970 to the actor Andrew Cruickshank. He was succeeded in 1983 by Jonathan Miller, and then by Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith (widow of former Labour Leader John Smith). The current chair is Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, who succeeded Baroness Smith in 2012.[2]

The first full-time Fringe chief was former teacher, John Milligan, who left in 1976 to run the Craigmillar Festival. He was succeeded by writer and historian Alistair Moffat, who left in 1981 to become Head of Arts at Scottish Television. He was replaced by Michael Dale, who departed in 1986 to become Head of Events for the Glasgow Garden Festival. He was succeeded by his deputy, Mhairi Mackenzie-Robinson, who left in 1993 to pursue a career in business. Hilary Strong served in the position until 1999, when she then became director of the Greenwich Theatre. She was followed by Paul Gudgin (2000–2007), Jon Morgan (2007–2008), and Kath Mainland (2008–2015). In November 2015, Mainland announced her decision to step down as Chief Executive in order to take on the role of Executive Director of the Melbourne Festival,[34] and in early 2016 it was announced that Shona McCarthy had been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.[3]

Promoters and artistic directors

The Fringe has made the careers of many on the artistic and organisational side of the Fringe. William Burdett-Coutts, Karen Koren, Anthony Alderson and Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, the directors of the so-called "Big Four" venues have become well-known on the cultural scene.[14]

Statistics

The first Fringe featured eight companies performing in five venues. By 1959, there were 19 companies; by 1969, 57; by 1979, 324. In 1981, there were 494, and the growth of the festival began to slow. But by 1999, there were over 600 companies giving 15,000 performances and in 2010, 1,900 giving 40,000.[13]

Statistics for 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe concluded that it was the largest on record: there were over 40,000 performances of over 2,500 different shows in 258 venues.[35] Ticket sales amounted to around 1.8 million.[35] There are now 12 full-time members of staff.

Of the shows, theatre had been the largest genre in terms of number of shows until 2008, when it was overtaken by comedy, which has been the major growth area over the last 20 years. At the 2015 Fringe comedy was the biggest artform by number of shows, followed by theatre. The exact breakdown was: 34% comedy, 27% theatre, 14% music, 5% children's shows, 4% each cabaret/variety, dance/circus/physical theatre, spoken word, events, 3% musicals/opera, 2% exhibitions.[36]

The 2015 Fringe issued an estimated 2,298,090 tickets for 50,459 performances of 3,314 shows in 313 venues over 25 days.[37]

In addition to ticketed, programmed events, the Fringe Street Events hosted by Virgin Money run each day of the festival, primarily on the Royal Mile and at the Mound Precinct.

Year Venues Companies Performers Shows Performances Tickets issued
1947[6] 5 8
1959[38] 19
1969[13] 57
1979[13] 324
1981[13] 494
1999[13] >600 >15,000
2010[35] 21,148
2011[35] 258 not given 21,192 2,542 41,689 1,877,119
2012[39] 279 2,304 22,457 2,695 42,096 not given
2013[40] 273 2,402 24,107 2,871 45,464 "almost 2 million"
2014[41] 299 2,636 23,762 3,193 49,497 2,183,591
2015[36] 313 not given 27,918 3,314 50,459 2,298,090

Opinion

Many performers have spoken highly of the Fringe, and the effect it has had on their career. Magician Paul Daniels first appeared at the Fringe in the twilight of his career in 2013, and commented, 'I've become Edinburgh's publicity agent. I tell everybody, "You've got to be in it."'[42]

Criticism

Open Access Arts Festival

The role of the Fringe Society is to facilitate the festival, concentrating mainly on the challenging logistics of organising such a large event. Alistair Moffat (Fringe administrator 1976–1981) summarised the role of the Society when he said, "As a direct result of the wishes of the participants, the Society had been set up to help the performers that come to Edinburgh and to promote them collectively to the public. It did not come together so that groups could be invited, or in some way artistically vetted. What was performed and how it was done was left entirely to each Fringe group". This approach is now sometimes referred to as an unjuried festival, open access arts festival or a fringe festival.[43]

Quality

Over the years, this approach has led to adverse criticism about the quality of the Fringe. Much of this criticism comes from individual arts critics in national newspapers, hard-line aficionados of the Edinburgh International Festival, and occasionally from the Edinburgh International Festival itself.

The Fringe's own position on this debate may be summed up by Michael Dale (Fringe Administrator 1982–1986) in his book Sore Throats & Overdrafts, "No-one can say what the quality will be like overall. It does not much matter, actually, for that is not the point of the Fringe ... The Fringe is a forum for ideas and achievement unique in the UK, and in the whole world ... Where else could all this be attempted, let alone work?". Views from the middle ground of this perennial debate point out that the Fringe is not complete artistic anarchy. Some venues do influence or decide on the content of their programme, such as the Traverse and the now defunct Aurora Nova.

A frequent criticism, well-aired in the media over the last 20 years, has been that "stand-up comedy is taking over" the Fringe, that a large proportion of newer audiences are drawn almost exclusively to stand-up comics (particularly to television comedy stars in famous venues), and that they are starting to regard non-comedy events as "peripheral". The 2008 Fringe marked the first time that comedy has made up the largest category of entertainment.[44]

The freedom to put on any show has led periodically to controversy when individual tastes in sexual explicitness or religion have been contravened. This has brought some into conflict with local city councillors. There have been the occasional performing groups who have deliberately tried to provoke controversy as a means of advertising their shows.

Ticket prices

Fringe show flyers and posters compete for space on a High Street phone booth

In the mid-1990s, only the occasional top show charged £10 per seat, while the average price was £5–£7; in 2006, prices were frequently over £10, and £20 was reached for the first time in 2006 for a show that lasted 1 hour. Some of the reasons that are put forward for the increases include: the increasing costs associated with hiring large venues; theatre licences and related costs; plus the price of accommodation during the Edinburgh Festival which is expensive for performers as well as for audiences.

In recent years, a different business model has been adopted by two organisations; The Free Fringe and The Laughing Horse Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival have introduced the concept of the free entry show, though there are collections at the end of each performance. There were 22 shows that came under this banner in 2005, growing rapidly to over 600 in 2011. There was also the "pay what you can" model of the Forest Fringe, and "Pay What You Want" as introduced by Bob Slayer's Heroes of Fringe discussed above.

Costs to performers

Putting on a show at the Fringe with the big venues can be costly to performers,[45] due to registration fees, venue hire, cost of accommodation, and travel to Edinburgh. In recent years venue costs and the need for expensive marketing have been increasingly challenged by Free and other Independent venues. There is a change happening at the Fringe and performers can increasingly negotiate with the big venues. The festival is also a networking opportunity, training ground or springboard for future career advancement, and exciting and fun for performers as well as spectators.[46]

Costs to venues

Putting on shows is costly to venues as well, due to theatre license fees which by 2009 had risen 800% in the preceding three years, and were eight times as high as fees in English cities, starting at £824 for a venue of up to 200 people and rising to £2,472 for a venue of up to 5,000 people.[47] These fees have been cited as punitive to smaller venues and site-specific performances by such figures as Julian Caddy,[48] which in 2009 featured site-specific shows in such venues as Inchcolm island and a swimming pool at the Apex International Hotel.

Independent Fringe (Fringe of the Fringe)

The Fringe itself at times sprouts a fringe. While the festival is unjuried, participating in the Fringe requires registration, payment of a registration fee,[45] and use of a Fringe venue. For example, the 2008 registration fee was £289.05.[49] Some outdoor spaces also require registration, notably the Royal Mile.[50][51] Thus some artists perform outside the auspices of the Fringe, either individually or as part of a festival or in association with a venue, either outdoors or in non-Fringe venues.

Started by Deborah Pearson in 2007, and continuing in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, under the co-directorship of Andy Field and Pearson, a primary "Fringe of the Fringe" festival is held,[52][53] at The Forest, with support from 2008 to 2010 by the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) and currently supported by several organisations including the Jerwood Foundation and Queen's University in Canada. The aim is to encourage experimentation by reducing costs to performers – not charging for space, and providing accommodation. The same applies to audiences: all shows being "pay what you can".[54]

Pay-To-Play

In 2012, there was criticism of the increasing commercialism of the Pay-To-Play fringe venues who charge acts to perform in advance of the fringe. In many cases venue costs such as: venue rents / guarantees, compulsory marketing and various deductions mean that performers are being charged more than they can make back in ticket sales.[55][56]

Stewart Lee stated in The Guardian: "For decades, the Fringe has been a utopia for artists and performers – but now profit-obsessed promoters are tearing it to pieces."[57] Heroes of Fringe (Previously called The Alternative Fringe) was set up by Bob Slayer as a statement against Pay-To-Play venues.[58][59]

Some Fringe commentators agree that the Fringe will have to change and that the independent promoters are leading that change.[60][61]

Reviews and awards

Sources of reviews

For many groups at the Fringe the ultimate goal is a favourable review which, apart from the welcome kudos, may help to minimise any financial losses that are suffered in putting on the show.

Edinburgh based newspaper The Scotsman, known for its comprehensive coverage of the Edinburgh Festival, originally aimed to review every show on the Fringe. Now they are more selective, as there are simply too many shows to cover, although they do see almost every new play being staged as part of the Fringe's theatre programme, because of their Fringe First awards.

Other Scottish media outlets that provide coverage include: The Herald, Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Herald and the Scottish edition of Metro. Scottish arts and entertainment magazines The List and Fest Magazine also provide extensive coverage.

A number of independent reviewing organisations cover the Fringe, including Broadway Baby, ThreeWeeks, Chortle, FringeReview, and FringeGuru.

The now defunct Festival Media Network was founded in 2010 to act as a trade organisation for these independent media. Its members are Broadway Baby, Festival Previews, Fringe Guru, FringeReview, Hairline, iFringe, ThreeWeeks, The Podcast Network, and WhatsOnStage.[62]

In 2012, the most prolific reviewers were Broadway Baby which published over 1900 reviews,[63] ThreeWeeks, which published 1000 reviews during August,[64] and The Scotsman with 826 reviews.[65] The List published 480 reviews and WhatsOnStage.com published 52.[66]

Most of the London-based broadsheets also review, in particular The Guardian and The Independent, while arts industry weekly The Stage publish a large number of Edinburgh reviews, especially of the drama programme.

Since 2010, the British Comedy Guide has collected over 4,300 reviews of around 1,110 different acts, across 83 different publications.[67]

Awards

Gabriel Byrne holding his Herald Angel

There are a growing number of awards for Fringe shows, particularly in the field of drama:

Malcolm Hardee Award

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "About the Edinburgh Festival Fringe". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
  2. 1 2 "Fringe Society Board of Directors". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
  3. 1 2 3 "Shona McCarthy appointed as Chief Executive of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
  4. ↑ Moffatt 1978, p. 15.
  5. ↑ "Special Collections: Edinburgh Festival Fringe". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 16 Mar 2016.
  6. 1 2 Fisher 2012, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Kemp, Robert (14 August 1948). "More that is Fresh in Drama". Edinburgh Evening News.
  8. 1 2 3 Moffatt 1978, p. 17.
  9. ↑ "Belgian Royalty at Festival". Dundee Courier. 24 August 1950. Retrieved 16 March 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  10. 1 2 Fisher 2012, p. 20.
  11. 1 2 "History of the Edinburgh Festivals". Edinburgh Festival. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
  12. ↑ Fisher 2012, p. 21.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fisher 2012, p. 13.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Fisher 2012, p. 14.
  15. 1 2 Review of the Box Office System Project
  16. ↑ Carrell, Severin (10 January 2009). "Edinburgh Fringe may seek £600,000 bail-out". The Guardian.
  17. ↑ theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, theSpaceUK @ Venue 53
  18. ↑ "Paradise Green". Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  19. ↑ Gardner, Lyn (2000-08-07). "All the flat's a stage". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  20. ↑ "Edinburgh Fringe Venues". Cracking The Fringe. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  21. ↑ http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2013/04/17/17644/the_free_shows_you_can_pay_for...
  22. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-23808788
  23. ↑ http://www.comedyawards.co.uk/biogs/Newcomer_AdamHess.html
  24. ↑ http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2016/02/26/24269/gilded_balloon_to_offer_pay_what_you_want
  25. ↑ Leonard, Nicholas. "50 years on from Beyond the Fringe: Pete, Dud, Alan, Jon & me". The Scotsman. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  26. ↑ Michael H. Hutchins (14 August 2006). "A Tom Stoppard Bibliography: Chronology". The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
  27. ↑ Watson, Roland; Sylvester, Rachel; Hopkins, Kathryn (24 February 2012). "First knight of nerves for Derek Jacobi and A Bunch of Amateurs". The Times (London). Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  28. ↑ Andy Borowitz (1 October 2009). "The Scotsman". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  29. ↑ "Twelve Angry Men's description". Chortle. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  30. ↑ One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 19 August 2004
  31. ↑ For Odd's Sake Archived 13 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  32. ↑ Ferguson, Brian (16 April 2009). "Ticket touts are greedy scum, rages Ricky Gervais". The Scotsman (Edinburgh). Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  33. ↑ Fraser, Gemma (28 August 2007). "Going wild and giving it up for a good cause". Edinburgh Evening News. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  34. ↑ "Kath M Mainland steps down as Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
  35. 1 2 3 4 "Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Annual Review 2011" (PDF). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 2012.
  36. 1 2 "Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Annual Review 2015" (PDF). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 2016.
  37. ↑ "Fringe Society 2015 end of season press release". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
  38. ↑ Fisher 2012, p. 12-13.
  39. ↑ "Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Annual Review 2012" (PDF). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 2013.
  40. ↑ "Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Annual Review 2013" (PDF). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 2014.
  41. ↑ "Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Annual Review 2014" (PDF). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 2015.
  42. ↑ Fisher 2012, p. 15.
  43. ↑ "About us | Edinburgh Festival Fringe". The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  44. ↑ Dibdin, Thom (5 June 2008). "Comedy overtakes theatre in Edinburgh Festival Fringe first". The Staged. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
  45. 1 2 "Costs & Deadlines". Archived from the original on 19 June 2009.
  46. ↑ Why should I bring my show to Edinburgh? Archived 12 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  47. ↑ 'Pure greed' of 800% rise in venue fees, by Tim Cornwell, The Scotsman, 12 August 2009
  48. ↑ Julian Caddy Sweet Venues
  49. ↑ "How much will it cost?". 8 February 2008. Archived from the original on 7 February 2008.
  50. ↑ "High Street Information". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009.
  51. ↑ "Performers". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009.
  52. ↑ "Forest Fringe". Forest Fringe. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  53. ↑ Gardner, Lyn (21 May 2008). "A loss and a gain for Edinburgh's audiences: The Fringe will be a poorer place without Aurora Nova this year, but Forest Fringe could step into its shoes". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  54. ↑ Forest Fringe: About Us Archived 22 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  55. ↑ "How the Edinburgh Fringe is financed: the article which you cannot read in this morning’s edition of The Scotsman | SO IT GOES – John Fleming's blog". Thejohnfleming.wordpress.com. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  56. ↑ Claire Smith (25 August 2012). "Don't ask about dosh: The true cost of staging a Fringe show – Scotland". The Scotsman. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  57. ↑ Stewart Lee (30 July 2012). "Stewart Lee: the slow death of the Edinburgh Fringe | Culture". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  58. ↑ "The Edinburgh Fringe is the real pay-to-play scandal : Correspondents 2012 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  59. ↑ "Stewart Lee & Bob Slayer: How The Fringe Escaped Its Certain Fate". Theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  60. ↑ "Edinburgh Fringe round-up II – will 2012 be a turning point? | Edinburgh is Funny". Londonisfunny.com. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  61. ↑ "The future of the Fringe? Think smaller : Correspondents 2012 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. 28 August 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  62. ↑ "Festival Media Network Website". Festival Media Network. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  63. ↑ "Broadway Baby: Edinburgh 2012". Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  64. ↑ "ThreeWeeks: All Reviews, Edinburgh 2012". Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  65. ↑ "The List: Top Rated". Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  66. ↑ "The List's Top-Rated Shows Statistics". The List (magazine). Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  67. ↑ "Best reviewed Edinburgh Fringe shows 2014". British Comedy Guide. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  68. ↑ The Herald Angels, The Herald
  69. ↑ Scotland: Freedom of Expression Award shortlist announced, Amnesty International, 21 August 2006 Archived 25 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  70. ↑ ThreeWeeks Editors' Awards 2006
  71. ↑ "Broadway Baby Bobby Award". Broadwaybaby.com. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  72. ↑ "The Malcolm Hardee Awards". The Malcolm Hardee. Retrieved 15 June 2008.
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  74. ↑ Wolf, Ian (2 June 2008). "New Fringe award dedicated to Malcolm Hardee". British Sitcom Guide. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  75. ↑ "And now for something completely different...". Irish Independent. 28 September 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2008.

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