Exclusive:Edinburgh Festival Fringe: 'Not enough audience' to sustain almost 4,000 shows, Gilded Balloon operator warns

Katy Koren, who runs Gilded Balloon with her mother, Karen, said smaller venues were struggling to fill seats and insisted venue operators had a "responsibility" to keep shows within a sustainable level.

They warned the Fringe was in danger of being “lost” if a need to cut runs short due to spiralling costs meant artists could no longer use the festival to experiment and hone their craft.

The pair also called for major gigs to be scheduled outwith the Fringe, warning they had taken a hit in ticket sales on the days Oasis was in Edinburgh.

They confirmed Gilded Balloon, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is to return to its Teviot base next summer following a refurbishment delayed by complications in rewiring the Victorian building. The new-look Teviot, which is run by Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA), was due to be unveiled last spring, but was blighted by delays.

Gilded Balloon, which took on space at Appleton Tower this year in place of its Teviot performance spaces, is due to be given the keys in November ahead of students returning in the spring.

Katy says smaller venues have been hit by dwindling audiences opting to spend money on tickets for more established acts.

“There is a issue this year that small venues have not had enough ticket sales,” she said. “There's not enough audience for the amount of shows this year, and that's something that nobody wants to say, but it's true and the smaller shows have struggled.

“Venue operators have a responsibility, in my opinion, to stay at a level that makes sense for the festival.”

According to figures released by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society at the start of the Fringe, this year’s event was set to feature 54,474 performances from 3,853 shows. The figure is the second highest since 2019, when a record 4,105 shows were performed.

Gilded Balloon is looking forward to returning to its Teviot base for next year’s Fringe. It recently opened a new venue, the Gilded Saloon, in partnership with a neighbouring bar, on Lothian Street, which is run with a year-round programme of events.

Meanwhile, it will continue to venue manage Shedinburgh, the new venue at the Edinburgh College of Art run by producer Francesca Moody, next year.

The newly reconfigured space at Teviot will have three spaces less than the nine they are used to. However, they have plans to fix that once they get inside.

“We think we’ll be able to get three back again,” says Katy. “[This is] using new spaces for bars, or some old bar space that’s not being used anymore. So we're hoping that we'll be able to get back a similar footprint to what we had before.

“The great thing about it is the accessibility has been completely changed so people can get into the building much easier. It means that our venues in there will be accessible.”

They said they would consider retaining a presence in Appleton Tower if the opportunity arose, branding it a “great success”, but insisted they were not actively looking to expand.

“We're not greedy,” says Katy. “We don't want loads of money, we just want to have a more sustainable business.”

With no idea how the space would work when they first agreed the contract with the University of Edinburgh, Karen programmed her “in conversation” series, which featured stars including Alan Davies and Rosie O’Donnell, into Gilded Balloon’s museums space.

“I programmed them into the museum,” says Karen. “Which, of course, is a beautiful venue and it's air conditioned and lovely. Little knowing that the two top venues in Appleton Tower were all finished, they are absolutely beautiful and air conditioned and very comfortable, and 300 seats more than in the museum.”

Davies and O’Donnell, however, only performed for ten days at the beginning of the Fringe.

“That definitely continues to be a challenge,” says Karen. “Even for the headliners to come, they're only coming from shorter runs. I needed them for the whole run. It means programming is a huge juggle, it's a jigsaw puzzle.”

Katy adds: “Talking to artists, all of the people that are doing shorter runs are literally saying they wish they were doing longer, and I wish we could stay here for longer, because the Fringe is this unique thing that actually helps artists develop and get better at what they do.

“Before, it was more of a playground where people could come up and experiment. But now, because it's become so expensive, people don't have that freedom anymore. And if it’s not useful to artists like that anymore, then it's in danger of being lost, because, as we say, the headliners are only doing bits and bobs here and there.”

While bigger name artists are opting for shorter Fringe runs due to tour commitments, or a lack of desire to perform for three weeks running, many other performers are cutting short their stay in Edinburgh due to rising costs. The Korens claim the problem was compounded by the Oasis gigs at the beginning of August, especially at the weekends, when they say they would usually expect around half of their artists to sell out.

Karen says: “I think Edinburgh is making a mistake, putting on huge shows during the biggest arts festival in the world. It needs to be more carefully planned in the future.”

Katy adds: “It just proved that there isn't audience enough for both. It just took audience away.”

She disagrees with Edinburgh Council’s argument that Oasis fans could also attend Fringe shows.

“They did not, they were just concentrating on the one gig,” she says, adding there was a noticeable drop in ticket sales at Gilded Balloon venues on the days of the Murrayfield concerts.

The pair also revealed they were in talks with Smack the Pony stars Sally Phillips, Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan about a potential tour of the reunion show, which has sold out at their venue this year. The group performed as part of Gilded Balloon’s 40th birthday celebrations, which Karen describes as her “passion projects”.

She says there are comedians who have remained loyal to the venue over decades, but admits she has lost some to perform elsewhere as they look for bigger audiences.

Karen started working with former MP Mhairi Black on her stand-up comedy show after being introduced through a friend. Ms Black is performing at Gilded Balloon again this year.

“She is a absolutely wonderful woman,” she says. “I would cry if she ever went to Assembly.”