Edinburgh Festival Fringe threat as impact of soaring 300% accommodation cost rise revealed

Fringe Society reveals slump in ticket buyers and official supporters

Fresh fears about the future of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been raised after new research revealed growing numbers of ticket buyers and artists are being put off going to the event by the soaring cost of accommodation in the city.

A Fringe street entertainer gathers a crowd on the Royal Mile.A Fringe street entertainer gathers a crowd on the Royal Mile.
A Fringe street entertainer gathers a crowd on the Royal Mile.

Organisers have confirmed declines in the number of UK-based ticket bookers, a slump in spare rooms and homes being let out to performers at affordable rates, and the cancellation of hundreds of official "Fringe Friend" memberships by supporters.

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Entertainers perform on the Royal Mile during the opening weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Entertainers perform on the Royal Mile during the opening weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Entertainers perform on the Royal Mile during the opening weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The arts charity that oversees the 77-year-old event said one in four audience members and journalists were now citing the cost of accommodation as a barrier to staying longer in Edinburgh or booking more shows.

The Fringe Society has lodged evidence with the Scottish Parliament highlighting how the costs faced by performers and companies trying to book long-term accommodation in August has soared by up to 300 per cent in the space of six years. The evidence also suggests up to £9,000 is now being charged to stay in a one-bedroom flat in the city for the entirety of the Fringe.

The Australian group Circa were part of Underbelly’s programme at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture: Lisa FergusonThe Australian group Circa were part of Underbelly’s programme at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture: Lisa Ferguson
The Australian group Circa were part of Underbelly’s programme at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

It has revealed an 80 per cent drop over the past two years in the number of Fringe listings on the "ethical booking platform", Theatre Digs Booker, which it has an official partnership with.

The Fringe Society, which runs the festival's official box office, programme and website, has highlighted the cancellation of nearly 800 "Fringe Friend" memberships from supporters since the end of last year’s festival, with many citing the growing cost of accommodation when they cancelled.

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MSPs have also been told of a "rapid trend" of Fringe shows becoming smaller in scale and playing shorter runs in the past two years.

Festivals Edinburgh, the strategy body that works with the city's major cultural events, has raised concerns about the growing domination of stand-up comedy in the city in August.

It has suggested this is down to the fact that comedy is "the simplest and cheapest format to produce" and warned the trend may affect Edinburgh's reputation as a "world-class cultural destination".

The latest concerns over the future of the Fringe have emerged despite the event notching up ticket sales of more than 2.61 million this year - the fourth biggest tally in its history. A total of 3,746 shows were registered for the official 2024 programme, making it the second biggest to date after 2019's record-breaking edition.

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However, this year's event ended with a series of warnings from Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy about the festival’s future.

She published an open letter suggesting emerging artists were being "squeezed out" by the "relentless rise in the cost of everything", a shortage of affordable accommodation and "blunt policy changes".

The Fringe Society and Festivals Edinburgh have been lobbying for a relaxation of controversial new controls on the short-term letting of properties, which took effect just over a year ago.

Edinburgh City Council has insisted that anyone seeking to let out a spare room or hire out their whole home to performers while they go on holiday during the festivals must seek prior permission and meet strict safety guidelines.

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It is believed that an additional 25,000 "bed nights" have been needed to meet demand for accommodation in Edinburgh during its summer festivals in recent years.

Responding to a Holyrood consultation on the initial impact of the new short-term licensing scheme, the Fringe Society said it wanted a rethink to ensure the letting out of spare rooms and personal properties people were living in was as "simple and streamlined as possible".

Its dossier states: "Our booking data from 2024 is still being analysed, but we can see that those [ticket sales] coming from ‘the rest of the UK’ is down by around 3,000 individual ticket buyers and has dropped by around 5,000 since 2022.

"The main barriers to attendance appear to be general cost, including accommodation, so the Fringe is potentially starting to be seen unfavourably by our visitor economy.

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"From our audience survey, one in four of those who responded said the cost of accommodation put them off attending more shows at the Fringe. In our media survey, one in four journalists cited accommodation costs as a barrier to staying in Edinburgh for the Fringe for longer."

The society's dossier for MSPs included anecdotes from former Fringe Friend members, as well as companies and performers who had recently taken part in the event.

One company said: " The biggest impact is that post-Covid we’ve avoided bringing ambitious work with a cast of more than one person to Edinburgh, chiefly because of accommodation and relocation costs.

"We’ve had early conversations with exciting shows with casts of four and more, including theatre, drag and cabaret, in which it quickly becomes clear that the overheads of taking the show to Fringe are far too high, and everyone involved will stand to lose too much money."

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One artist said: “The Fringe is a place like no other and as an artist it is a must in the calendar. However, it is a huge financial burden that is not easing any time soon.

"Accommodation is extortionate, and the cost of bringing a show just keeps ballooning. It seems there are less and less visitors, potentially because of how expensive the accommodation and travel is, meaning you are reaching smaller audiences.”

One supporter said: "I am very concerned that the costs of accommodation and putting on a show are now a barrier to the kinds of artists and shows that the Fringe is really for.

"I'm not sure what the answer is, but I fear that unless this problem is tackled, the Fringe that I have enjoyed and loved over the past 20 years will irrevocably change. If that happens, we will all lose the chance to enjoy the fantastic diversity of talent the Fringe brings out of the shadows.”

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The Festivals Edinburgh report for Holyrood adds: "Between 2022 and 2024, there has been a rapid trend of Fringe shows becoming smaller in scale and playing over fewer dates due to cost factors, of which accommodation is the largest.

"Most shows are now one-person shows, with an increasing proportion of stand-up comedy, which is the simplest and cheapest format to produce.

"This change to the range and ambition of creative content stands to damage the value of visitor spend to Scotland, because higher-value visitors will stop seeing Edinburgh in August as a world-class, must-see cultural destination."

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