Festivals

The future of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards is at risk following the end of a two-year title sponsorship deal with UKTV channel Dave.

The awards have failed to secure a new sponsor for 2023 and will not run this year without last-minute support from sponsors.

The awards were established in 1981 by West End producer Nica Burns. She continues to oversee them and funded them herself in 2009 and 2018, in the absence of an official sponsor.

The awards are now being moved into ownership of a charitable trust and will seek funding from several smaller sponsorship deals in future years, British Comedy Guide reported.

The awards cost more than £200,000 a year to run, including events, prize funds, administrative costs and judging and scouting teams.

“As everyone across the arts knows, post-Covid the commercial landscape has changed significantly: marketing and sponsorship budgets are under huge pressure and the pool of ethically appropriate sponsors diminished,” organisers said.

"It has become clear that we need to change the funding model, to think beyond one large title sponsor, to raise money from a mix of sources.”

They called for "potential heroes” to offer support that might allow the awards to be distributed at this year’s edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“As the comedy section [of the Fringe Society's annual programme] has expanded to become such a significant genre of the Fringe, so have the costs of running the awards,” Burns said.

“Having stepped in and personally sponsored them twice over the years, I will be the first to put money on the table for 2023, but post-Covid I can no longer do it on my own. 

“I am therefore inviting the comedy industry and all potential partners to get in touch immediately to help make the awards happen this year."

The Made in Scotland programme will fund 18 Scottish shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The programme, funded by the Scottish government’s Festivals Expo Fund, will support shows created by local companies, spanning a range of performance styles including dance, music and theatre.

This year’s selection of shows focus on themes including life and death, loss, violence and drug addiction, as well as exploring everyday life through the lens of emerging parenthood and family.

Performances will also delve into Scottish traditions, exploring how they embody culture while questioning the concept and nature of a country.

The 18 shows selected for the 2023 festival are part of more than 250 funded by the Made in Scotland showcase since its inception in 2009.

Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development at the Scottish Government, said the programme gives “Scottish talent a well-earned opportunity to perform on the international stage”. 

“Together, the Fringe and Made in Scotland help nurture and encourage the exceptional creative talent that flourishes in Scotland, showcasing the creativity and innovation that’s right on our doorstep,” she said.

The showcase is “the main mechanism through which Scottish government supports local artists at the Edinburgh Fringe”, said Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.

“It has been a vital platform for artists from Scotland to have their work seen, promoted and presented alongside their international peers.”
 

Edinburgh International Film Festival is set to return later this year after announcing its immediate closure last October when the charity that ran it entered administration.

The festival has joined with Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) to present a scaled-down programme of events this summer as part of EIF’s larger calendar of theatre, comedy and music.

Meanwhile, Screen Scotland, which is part of Creative Scotland, is looking to solidify the film festival’s long-term future.

Work with a group of industry experts is underway to reinstate a standalone annual film festival from next year, which is expected to target young, diverse audiences.

The festival is receiving a £400,000 grant from Screen Scotland and has appointed a new programme director, former Senior Programme at London Film Festival Kate Taylor, while the search for a new chair is ongoing.

The controversial comedian and magician Jerry Sadowitz is to return to the Edinburgh Fringe, despite having the second of two 2022 shows cancelled following complaints.

Sadowitz has been booked for a three-night run at The Queen's Hall for this year's Fringe.

The show in August is being billed as 'Jerry Sadowitz …proudly presents Last Year's Show' and is being promoted by Regular Music.

The flyer advertising the show warns that it is "offensive to everyone".

Last year's show at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre was cancelled by promoters the Pleasance after what it claimed was an "unprecedented number of complaints".

The Pleasance said the show was "extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny".

Sadowitz, however, said his act contained "a lot of silly, exaggerated irony and nonsense, real fake and exaggerated anger and bile... for the purpose of the funny line which follows it".

He added: "The show is what it is, for those who enjoy it. The rest of you... please stick to Carry On films."

Major arts festivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow are to receive a share of the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund worth £1.8m.

Established in 2007, the fund aims to build innovation across the festivals and maximise national and international opportunities for the artists contributing to them.

The year, 14 festivals including Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and Glasgow International Festival are receiving funding.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has received the most, totalling £550,000.

Glasgow Film Festival and the biennial Sonica visual art and sonic festival will receive funding for the first time. Creative Scotland Chief Executive Iain Munro welcomed the government’s decision to “recognise the distinct international profile and work” of the two events.

“The fund is vital in raising the international profile of these festivals and enabling them to enhance their programmes through exciting and innovative co-productions and collaborations,” Munro added.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced 50 recipients of the Keep it Fringe fund, a new initiative intended to help level the playing field for artists.

The fund, which is supported by the Fleabag for Charity fund, as well as donations from individuals and Edinburgh Gin, is dispersing bursaries of £2,000 to a mixture of artists and companies bringing work to festival in 2023.

Applications to the fund, which was established this year, opened in early March. It received applications from 677 artists and companies, each of which was reviewed by two assessors.

The group of 23 assessors were tasked with identifying shows that capture the “defiant spirit” of the Fringe and are able to take advantage of the platform the festival provides to showcase untold stories.

The funded shows, which include a mixture of paid and free-entry performances, cover a broad range of subjects including climate action, OCD, parenthood, migration, love, death and the realities of rural life.

They will be performed across multiple genres, including musicals, stand-up, spoken word for children, plays, drag, performance art, variety and immersive theatre.

The Fringe Society highlighted the diversity of successful candidates. Nearly one in two are disabled or have a health condition and one in three come from a working-class background.

In addition to a £2,000 bursary, the 50 recipients of the fund will receive support to perform at the festival, including a share of £50,000 in advertising credits donated by TikTok.

They will also receive return tickets from electric rail provider Lumo from one of its UK hubs to Edinburgh.

“The number of applications received for the Keep it Fringe fund reflects the current economic climate and a need for significant support for artists coming to the Fringe,” said Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.