Peter Buckley Hill, better known as PBH, is a bona-fide legend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Educationalist, and Musical Comedian of the Folk circuit, he first came to Edinburgh to perform in 1995. Quickly deciding that it was not a place for the less known performer, he founded the Free Fringe with a single show the following Summer of 1996. The Free Fringe, or PBH’s Free Fringe, is now a multi-venue, award winning operation, and a fixture of the August calendar here in the world’s Festival city. Stepping back from overall management of the Free Fringe in 2016, he now shares oversight of his brainchild with CEO Luke Meredith.
PBH’s Free Fringe
6th – 28th August
For further details click here.
Prompts from me: Italics
PBH: bold
How would you summarise your philosophy on the Fringe, and your work within it?
We are a collective of performers and a non-profit organisation. Our goal is to make performance affordable for all performers who meet the artistic standard of the Fringe.
How would you distinguish yourselves from the other promoters/venues in the mix?
We are run by and for performers. We make no compulsory charges on performers, public or venues. We are ethical. We are non-profit.
Of your comrade organisations, is there any you particularly admire, and why?
No. We deplore any organisation that makes money from Fringe performers. That being said, The Stand gives its performers a fair deal.
How has/Has the pandemic/lockdown affected how you approach your work?
As soon as we could be active again, we were. We take credit for organising a 900-performance programme at less than a month’s notice in 2021.
What are your hopes for this year’s (2022) Fringe? Do you have a stretch goal, all things going your way?
I have no idea what the second sentence means. Our primary hope is survival, in the face of our disgraceful treatment by the Recuperation Fund.
How do you think promoters/venues can work best with performers to re-establish live performance?
By doing what we do. A number of organisations have now adopted our free-admission-to-the-public model, but still charge performers for their performance spaces. We regard that as reprehensible.
Do you have a favourite, or top 3 favourite acts who’ve worked with you so far?
No. All our members are equal.
Is there any particular up and coming talent you’re excited to bring to Edinburgh this year?
They bring themselves to Edinburgh; we merely make it possible for them to come. All our members are equal, even though some are more famous than others.
What is your view on the future of the Edinburgh Festivals, as a whole? (What do you think it should be, in an ideal world?)
We have nothing to say about any festival other than the fringe. In an ideal world, the fringe should be run by and on behalf of its performers, and there should be no profiteering. It should maximise the exposure of the citizens of Edinburgh and its visitors to performers of all sorts, from all around the world, and it should do so at the lowest possible cost. It calls itself fringe; experimental work should therefore be encouraged, which by definition means that some of it will fail.
What’s your position on the costs of accomodation in the city during the Fringe?
Clearly too high. We have striven for 26 years to make the fringe affordable for performers, especially those with no access to funds or subsidies. This work is being killed by the price of accommodation for performers.
We have been told that some non-student citizens of Edinburgh are involuntarily evicted from their accommodation every August to accommodate more-profitable visitors to the city, be they performers or audience. If this is so, we condemn it.
Do you think Edinburgh is still the most important arts festival in the world? If yes, how can it stay there, if no, how can it get back?
I do not think it matters. How do you measure importance of festivals, especially non-curated ones? It is what it is. Why compete? Is Beethoven better than Shakespeare? It’s a non-issue.
No other festival is like the Edinburgh fringe. Many others call themselves fringe. But they are not even similar. So where is the comparison point?
But if the fringe ever becomes curated, as recent press statements by the head of the Glorified Box Office indicate, then it dies. And so it should. It is a unique model, and it is not safe in the hands of those who claim to speak for it. Performers were not consulted.
Institutions, like trees, die from the heart outwards. How healthy is the heart of the Edinburgh Fringe?
We’re all aware of an increasingly vocal concerns from some Edinburgh residents with regards to “over-tourism.”
a) What’s your take on the current situation?
b) What do you think is the best way forward?
No idea. We put on the shows; we make them easy for people to attend; people attend. As they have since we started in 1996. If the citizens of Edinburgh don’t want that, then they must (presumably through their elected representatives) make that clear, and we’ll step back. Many good people put in hundreds of hours of unpaid, unrewarded work to make the Free Fringe happen. Because we don’t think it’s in vain. But if it is, then we shall cultivate our gardens.
But we will not be killed by the Recuperation Fund giving astounding sums of money to organisations half our size, and none at all to us. That was nasty, and a direct blow at equality of opportunity within the fringe. And at us.
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