The Fringe- What needs to Change
Kaitlin Dryburgh
The Fringe is here, and the capital is bouncing once again. Who’s the most happy though, the performers, punters, landlords, residents or businesses?
Aside from the landlords and businesses everyone else has a rather difficult relationship with the Fringe. Like getting mugged but then subsequently thanking your mugger at the end of the encounter and wishing them well.
The performers know this is the biggest comedy festivals. Where shows with worldwide success can spawn, like Baby Reindeer and Fleabag. It’s a place where careers can be launched, craft can be honed, and people ‘discovered’. On the flip side it might break them mentally as their bank account becomes depleted and the whole experience will forever give them sweaty palms as they reminisce over couch surfing, living off instant noodles, and praying that someone turns up to their show.
Meanwhile, punters get shown the dark side of the tourist industry as the accommodation price hikes could leave most people queasy. Tourists are bled dry of money from extortionate food and drink, while corporate marketing is plastered all around. Yet, at the core of it the Fringe can still offer a good time, and still produce up and coming talent (even if they did have to sell a kidney to perform in the first place). Edinburgh is a great city, and Scotland is an amazing country, so even though I am bias I can see the appeal.
Residents get grumpy with tourists, but deep down there is pride that their city hosts a world-renowned festival. Even if it does mean the pavements are crammed, someone is trying to pay their bus ticket with a £50 note, and they’ve been offered approximately 1000 flyers as they walk to work. Perhaps the only legitimate gripe residents can have with the festival is the effect it has on housing. If there was no Fringe Festival the deluge of holiday lets in the city would be a lot less. Accommodation would be a lot more available, and prices wouldn’t be so ridiculous. Although this is spurred on by pure greediness and capitalistic plundering the housing crisis hasn’t been caused by a comedy and performing arts festival, it’s only one of the many catalysts. The true causes are of course much more significant.
As a resident, and a Scot I whole-heartedly refuse to pay £12 for a double gin and tonic served in a disposable cup. I think everyone has a ‘ How much??’ story of the Fringe, or just Edinburgh in general.
The sad news is many report the festival to be at breaking point due to all the above mentioned reasons. Many performers recommend only going for a maximum of seven days in order to reduce the financial loss. It is now widely understood that without backing you will make a loss, even if you do sell a lot of tickets. Therefore, a three-week run is near damn impossible.
Aside from the accommodation daylight robbery the actual Fringe has gotten away from itself, the corporate bolstering is a far cry from the artist-led festival that celebrated diversity in the arts. The unfortunate thing is the majority of shows won’t be the new Fleabag, they won’t go on to have a Netflix special. Comedy and Tv has changed so much in recent years that the scouts from Channel four, BBC etc are just not as prominent. What was once a vehicle for comedians and performers to be discovered is now moving to the likes of Tik Tok. Yet even though the event perhaps offers less to performers it seems to be making it harder for them to survive. They haven’t managed to face up to the times and find solutions to rising costs, there’s not been a huge push back on extortionate venue prices. Marketing for example, poses an expensive issue for performers. Flyering is costly yet there has been no moves by the organisers to make this a collective approach in order to this a less costly activity. Even from last year some estimate that the cost of marketing has increased 20%.
Many performers are having to rely on private investors to ensure they don’t come back out of pocket, but that travesty means two things. One, many will not be able to achieve that, after all there are only a limited number of investors and there are currently over 3,000 shows this year. Secondly, private investors means more constraints on art and a more business-like approach.
We’re barrelling towards a group making a ‘fringe’ festival to rival The Fringe Festival, and who could blame them. If the Fringe isn’t at breaking point the quality of art surely is. Although you can’t help but ask ‘who can afford to be here’, the question should really be, who can’t? What are we missing out on, home-grown talent who can’t even perform in their own country. But considering bigger names like Jason Manford has made it clear he’ll be making a loss if he attends, who can afford it? Is this a festival for the rich, or just a one-way ticket to bankruptcy court? How far is the Fringe festival and Edinburgh willing to push profits above art? Because right now it seems they’re going to push it right of a cliff.
It’s a shame because what was once this free flowing, anti-establishment, art-driven festival is now too often a vessel for landlords, hotels and businesses to make an extortionate amount.
