The Edinburgh Fringe Society has released its annual review of the world’s largest celebration of the performing arts – with a final ‘rallying call’ from outgoing Chief Executive Shona McCarthy.
Let’s take a closer look at the facts and figures reported in the review, and what it says about the health of the Fringe, the Fringe Society, and what lies ahead for the new Chief Executive when they take the hot seat.
Impressive ticket sales hide some uncomfortable truths
At 2.6 million tickets sold (a ~6% increase on 2023 numbers), 2024 audiences have reached levels last seen in 2017 but remain well behind the 3 million doled out in 2019. It’s also worth noting that there were only around 3400 shows in 2017, compared to 3746 officially registered this year.
Further, with ~694 Fringe-goers per show this year compared with ~784 in 2019, shows remained at higher risk of sparse – or worse – audiences. Accordingly, I dare to suggest that stakeholders would do well to focus on growing the Fringe-going public, rather than the overall number of shows.
“…we deliver an event of Olympic scale, and much wider impact, every single year, but we are doing it without core investment or a supportive policy environment.
Come on Scotland, you can
make this right – it’s your Edinburgh Fringe and it is exceptional.”Shona McCarthy – Chief Executive – Fringe Society
In better news, street performers appear to have had a good year at the Fringe, with 320 performers registered, and over 1,688 hours of entertainment provided. The early morning prize draws, sometimes attended by celebs such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Eddie Izzard were also talked of warmly by performers I chatted with whilst wandering (slowly, very slowly) up and down the Royal Mile between shows. Kudos are also due to whoever got sustainable Toilet Tissue gurus Who Gives a Crap to sponsor public toilets on the Mile – our lovely city is noticeably short on public conveniences otherwise!
The Fringe Society’s Review highlights some good and bad news for accessibililty
In other news, the Fringe Society’s community engagement programmes appear to be in robust health. The Community Ticketing Initiative, whereby artists, companies and venues can donate tickets for distribution to local charities and community groups, led to 10,129 bookings this year, almost doubling the 2023 number. The Fringe Days Out programme, which offers vouchers – including Lothian bus tickets – to local charities, schools and community groups including ReAct (Refugee Action Scotland), led to a record 3,797 visits. Elsewhere, Society outreach work brought around 950 schoolchildren and their teachers to the Fringe, whilst year-round work found the Society contributing to events such as the North Edinburgh Community Festival in Pilrig Park in May.
The figures on access, however, offer a more mixed picture. 152 shows with captioning plus 46 with audio description definitely leaves room for improvement in an even more technologically enabled world. 60% of shows being wheelchair accessible, conversely, seems quite impressive for a festival so intensely concentrated in some of the oldest, least adaptable buildings in Edinburgh. Moving more of the Fringe into newer, far more accessible properties – not in the Old Town – seems a no-brainer if future statistics are to make even better reading.
Fringe Media coverage doesn’t quite add up
Turning to media coverage of the 2024 Fringe, the Society point to almost 900 accredited individuals, drawn from 27 countries. At first glance, it’s an impressive figure. Yet, given the spectacular difficulty found by all but the most prominent, or quickly viral productions, in attracting press attention, a ~4:1 show-to-press ratio seems hard to believe. How to explain this?
“Shona has been an outstanding leader during a period
characterised by significant challenges including funding.
Her support of the Fringe’s renaissance following the pandemic
has been extraordinary, and she will be sorely missed.”Benny Higgins – Chair, Fringe Society Board of Directors
Well, after the first week (or first weekend for some), the major newspapers, barring the resident Scotsman, lose interest. Their willingness to cover expenses for visiting journalists dwindles with each passing year, whilst hell is likely to freeze over before they recruit more than 1 or 2 local writers.
Another chunk of that 900-strong accredited media will be social media ‘influencers’. the biggest player in that field is likely MickeyJoeTheatre, who managed a respectable 60 shows. However, the truth is that the biggest social media stars at the Fringe, are found on stage. Were it otherwise, the thousands of posters around town each August would be plastered with stars and quotes sourced from YouTube or TikTok.
Just a few of the #EdFringe reviews published by theQR this year.
Maybe that will change, but now, that leaves the majority of Fringe press coverage to independent websites such as ours. ‘What will make for the most attention’ also features in our decision making of course – it would be foolish to suggest otherwise. Some offset this by recruiting a high number of unpaid enthusiasts, with inevitable quality compromises. Others, like us, try to balance our small team or solo-based coverage between discovery and surefire interest. No one feels worse when turning down nine shows for each one I say yes to, than me. However, needs must when the budget drives.
If we are to drive up the proportion of those 900 accredited members of the media genuinely busy with covering the Fringe from beginning to end, from the wildest innovations to the most commercial gigs, then we must find ways to make news reporting pay again – but that’s for another article.
The present & future of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
Practically speaking, the Fringe Society are continuing with plans for a new headquarters in the South Bridge Resource Centre which formerly housed long-time Fringe operators Greenside during August. Assuming no obstacles, they anticipate work will begin this year for an opening next year. Time will tell if this proves an invaluable new, year-round resource for the arts in Edinburgh, or not. In an ideal world, making full use of the significant building would also help the gap between the Society’s incoming and outgoings, £5,532,678 and £5,759,268 for the past fiscal year respectively.
This article’s last words, however, must be reserved for Shona McCarthy, whose 9 years in charge have spanned some of the most dramatic in the Edinburgh Fringe’s long history. From the ‘biggest’ Fringe ever in 2019, through the Covid-19 pandemic, and ending in the midst of an existential threat to Summerhall, it’s been…a lot. Whilst the Fringe Society is not the Fringe, operating no venues, and taking no financial risk, it is an invaluable organising force. With the advent of the Keep it Fringe fund, which supported 180 shows to the tune of £2,500 each this year, it has also built on its existing roles in performer support such as information, networking, and face-to-face support services.
Other claims made by the Society, such as the ‘600 Rooms at the ‘Fringe Village’ hosted by Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Musselburgh, are a little shakier. QMU was offering some of the best value Fringe digs available long before the Fringe Society made contact.
However, there’s no doubting the value in the Society’s efforts to place Fringe creators in touch with the wider arts industry. 1,800 media decision-makers in town in 2024 can only be a good thing. The results are found throughout London theatre, and worldwide where work born in the Fringe keeps finding new audiences, and a prolonged commercial existence.
However, as the Edinburgh Fringe marches into the future with a new Chief Executive at the Fringe Society helm, he, she, or they will have to reckon with several issues unlikely to leave with McCarthy. Accommodation costs seem set to keep rising, which combined with the cost-of-living crisis will surely place a Fringe run out of reach for an ever-increasing proportion of the UK’s performing arts makers.
The annual argument over Fringe volunteering vs exploitation shows no sign of dying out, and the jury remains out as to whether TikTok and their much advertised ‘Offical Virtual Stage ‘ will ever be of manifest benefit. Beyond this, nothing but the end of the Fringe and the Society will please certain stakeholders who bemoan the disruption every year. Frankly whoever takes the job will have to resign themselves to a future in which satisfying everyone isn’t an option.
Good luck to the new Fringe Society leader – whoever they are.
On the other hand, the possibilities for positive change do exist, and with 2.6 million tickets (and likely rising again next year) sold via the Fringe Society, the fiscal benefits to the local economy will make any new leader an influential figure – just as Shona McCarthy has been for the last 9 years. Here’s hoping for a leader with an appetite to build on the Keep it Fringe fund, and to go far, far further towards sculpting a Fringe where talent, and not privilege defines access.
Featured Image: from Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
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