Recent years 'hardest' in Fringe history, warns longest-running venue operator

William Burdett-Coutts, director of Assembly, which has been operating as a Fringe venue since 1981, told an audience at this year's launch event for venue collaboration Edfest.com on Wednesday night, that the task of getting a show to the Fringe is "more hard than it has ever been".

He said the impact of Covid, inflationary pressures and the "extraordinary" cost of accommodation in Edinburgh - coupled with the cost of fuel and government tax increases - had hampered performers, warning that for many companies and performers, the event is “barely viable”.

Performers and audience members have raised the issue of affordability in visiting the Fringe in recent years as the cost of accommodation has risen sharply in the wake of the introduction of restrictions on short term lets such as AirBnB.

He said: “The last few years have been the hardest I’ve known in this industry and I’ve been at it a long time.

“The impact of Covid, the inflationary pressures in its aftermath and perhaps most acutely, the extraordinary cost of accommodation in Edinburgh, let alone the cost of fuel, government tax increases, all of which make the task of getting a show to the Fringe more hard than it has ever been and for most companies it is now barely viable. We spend our time trying to encourage people to come, but it’s all down to whether they can make it add up.”

Read more: Study to examine economic and social impact of Edinburgh Festival Fringe

He called on public bodies, businesses and other funders which benefit from the economic impact of the Fringe to step up and increase support by “turning the financial clock in the other direction”.

He said: “Insanely, so many people have to subsidise the work they bring here and we have to thank them for doing that, but it has to change. If it carries on like this, it’s bound to become a problem. Already we hear whispers from people saying the Fringe is getting too expensive.

“We have the greatest live gathering of work in the world and it has influence of the development of the entire arts and entertainment industry. It’s bigger than any other single events and the financial benefits it brings to Edinburgh and Scotland runs into the hundreds of millions of pounds every year and yet, as costs keep rising, support stays flat.”

He added: “Undoubtedly, we need to make more effort with all public bodies, funders and and businesses which are direct or indirect beneficiaries and supporters of the festival. It’s incumbent on all of them, and us, to recognise what this event is worth and to start turning the financial clock in the other direction.

“We cannot ask the world’s great artists to keep absorbing costs year on year and expect them to keep coming. It is simply not sustainable.”