Festivals

Eight of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s biggest producing venues have issued a collective statement decrying soaring accommodation costs as the biggest risk to the festival’s future.

Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbelly and ZOO – the venues behind EdFest.com – collectively sold 1,965,961 tickets in 2019, the last edition of the festival before the pandemic. This year’s combined sales are forecast to reach fewer than than 1,500,00.

“The forecast number of tickets we’ve collectively sold is down 25% compared to 2019, which is a major threat for everyone involved in the festival”, a spokesperson for EdFest.com said.

The ticket sales were achieved “despite the very real continuing challenges to our industry, including the cost-of-living crisis, the lingering effects of coronavirus, the cost and uncertainty of international travel, the recent train strikes and more,” the spokesperson continued. 

“Chief among these, however, is the soaring cost of accommodation in Edinburgh in August – audiences and artists alike are being priced out of town, out of experiences.”

The spokesperson said that the lack of safe, affordable housing is a year-round problem that affects the artists, staff and audiences who live in Edinburgh, as well as visitors to the city. 

It is “imperative that local and national government, landlords, the universities, Fringe venues and the Fringe Society all come together to find a lasting solution for this issue, or the future of the Fringe is in very real danger”, the spokesperson added, anticipating that restoring the event to normality may take several years and require public support.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society released figures showing that Edinburgh residents accounted for 39% of all ticket sales, up 4% from 2019. Overseas audience attendance also increased, accounting for 10% of all tickets, up 2% from 2019.

Organisers acknowledged that “audience patterns have changed, industrial action caused significant disruption to rail travel and refuse collection and affordable accommodation in Edinburgh was at crisis point”.

“This year’s festival is the first step in what will be a long road to recovery and renewal,” said Shona McCarthy, CEO of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 

“We recognise the significant amount of work that is still required to support the long-term sustainability of this phenomenal Festival… Collectively we will work to advocate for greater support for those at the heart of the Fringe – our artists.”  

The number of UK musicians booked to play festivals in Europe has fallen, according to analysis by Best for Britain.

The campaign group calculated the average number of British bands playing three major European festivals - Benicassim in Spain, Sziget in Hungary, and Lollapalooza in Germany – between 2017 and 2019, and compared it to the number booked to play the same festivals in 2022.

The analysis found a decrease of 45%. While noting the small sample size, Best for Britain said the statistics remain “sobering” and enough to raise “concerns on the impact that Brexit might be having on the next generation of British musicians”.

The analysis follows calls from across the music industry for the UK government to do more to support UK musicians touring the EU post-Brexit.

Croydon Council and Executive Mayor of Croydon Jason Perry have come in for criticism for the name of their new Ignite Fund announced on the weekend marking the 11th anniversary of the Croydon Riots.

The first stage of the Ignite Fund, part of the London Borough of Culture 2023, will provide grants of between £25,000 and £50,000 to ten individual artists and cultural organisations.

A further round of applications later in the year will fund 100 smaller projects for up to £1,000 each and 15 medium projects  up to £10,000 each.

But the name of the fund, which was not discussed with the local community according to a report from Inside Croydon, has sparked controversy.

Bushra Ahmed, whose family business and home were both torched by arsonists during the riots in August 2022, told the publication that the new fund’s name was “both misguided and insensitive”.

During the riots, police cars were fire-bombed, shops were looted and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed by arson.

The council has not responsed to the criticisms about the name of the fund.

“Croydon’s year as London Borough of Culture is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our culture and our communities and to kickstart our regeneration and restore pride,” said Perry.

“Croydon’s programme is truly community-led, with local residents, artists and cultural groups at the heart of all our plans, and we also want them to be the first to benefit from every opportunity that it brings.”

A report by Bristol City Council has found that Bristol Harbour Festival is suffering from an "identity crisis", with many people unclear as to the nature of the annual event.

“Some think it predominantly a music or food festival due to the programming… Generally there is a feeling it is commercialised, with big brands monopolising the food offer and few people see it as a community festival,” the report noted.

It added that many people were put off by the festival’s “drinking culture”, calling for major changes to the event.

“The drinking culture has a detrimental affect on attracting participants from different cultures and the older community,” the report found, with many visitors to the festival choosing to leave the area before evening. The report also raised concerns that the event is “too middle class and white”. 

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol in 2020, it said that the festival needed to make changes to “better reflect Bristol’s communicates in the context of these global events”. Recommendations include installing a creative director to help attract a more diverse audience.

“The festival needs to reflect recent events in its addressing of the issues around the harbour as well as celebrating the diversity that Bristol represents,” the report said.

Despite this, members of the council's are expected to approve an extension to 2023 for the current festival organisers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

They are expected to use next year’s event as a transition to a new contract, which will be retendered in 2024.

Experience commerce technology company Easol is launching a new toolkit designed to help festival organisers run profitable events and deliver “gold-standard” customer experience.

In the wake of the pandemic, festival organisers are facing challenges including rising costs and supply chain issues, loss of labour due to the pandemic and a saturated market after two years of postponements, the company said. It also cited low consumer confidence and the cost of living crisis as factors affecting ticket sales.

The new toolkit aims to help tackle the problem of organisers using multiple websites and systems to manage customer bookings and payments, which Easol says leads to “increased fees, loss of data and a loss of control over the customer experience”.

“It is amazing to see festivals up and running again but as festival organisers ourselves, we know that they are facing an uphill battle by using outdated technology that erodes the control they have over their business,” said Ben Simpson, Co-Founder and CEO of Easol.

The company plans to reveal full details of the toolkit at an event on September 22.

The first Edinburgh Deaf Festival will take place from 12 -19 August.

Organised by Deaf Action, with the support of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the festival is the first of its kind to be held in Scotland. Its organisation, production, shows and events are all deaf-led and it is scheduled to feature drama, magic, comedy, cabaret, tours, exhibitions, workshops, book clubs and a deaf rave.

Performances will include a mix of deaf and hearing artists and will be interpreted and captioned to be inclusive for hearing people as well as the deaf and hard of hearing.

“The festival will be a real celebration of our language, culture, heritage and the variety of people that make up our community,” said Deaf Action CEO Philip Gerrard.

Fringe CEO Shona McCarthy said “the Edinburgh Fringe is really proud to be associated with the first deaf festival in Scotland”.

“I think this is something that’s going to continue into the future and I hope it becomes an annual addition to the festivals landscape,” she said.

A new guide to help festivals, literature organisations and publishers run online and in-person hybrid events is now available.

Written by CRIPtic Arts Director Jamie Hale, in consultation with D/deaf and disabled writers, the Being Hybrid guide is designed to support time and resource limited organisations.

The guide hopes to prevent “shutting the door” on those who benefited from the increase in hybrid events during the pandemic, namely those who are geographically dispersed, disabled, poorer or have caring responsibilities.

Hale says hybrid programming can be simple and quick, adding the guide gives “the cheapest and fastest way of offering online as well as offline access to events”.

It covers five reasons for making an event hybrid, how to go hybrid with limited time and tech, putting ideas into practice, advice on including hybrid speakers and facilitators, and access to hybrid events.
 
The guide is available in full, summary, plain english, BSL and in audio and video formats.