The Fringe! What can we do about it?
Niall Moorjani's thoughts on how to save it or whether we even deserve to.
As I sit and write my heart breathes with relief and sadness as another Fringe has raced on by. On a wee walk I saw the circus hub dismantled in a matter of hours; everywhere Underbelly, Pleasance and Assembly staff running hither and thither with random items and obvious hangovers. It’s gone. It’s done. Yes, Mr Frodo it’s over now. And boy has it been a year.
Last year, I wrote an article defending the Edinburgh Fringe from those who want it to die. Saying it doesn’t need to, but instead be radically loved. That lil visual soundbite did the rounds on social media and I thought I should probably follow up last year’s article with what radical love could actually look like. Because after this year, whether I want it to die or not, it is becoming increasingly clear that it will, if change doesn’t happen - and quick. So here are my top five ways to save the Fringe. Please read to the end for an author’s note on bpoc artists’ experiences in 2024.
1. Tourist Tax to be increased during the festival and for the extra funds to be put straight onto the festival itself:
The city of Edinburgh has a real problem with sustainable tourism, year on year numbers rise and so too does the number of flats for airbnb and booking[.]com. Something needs to be given back and a tourist tax of probably 5% is coming in. It’s funny this has caused such a stir as it is so common in the rest of the world. The Scottish Greens have said this should increase to 8% during the festival season (August) and I would absolutely back this, but believe the extra 3% should be put straight back into the festival itself (I’m not sure I trust the Edinburgh Fringe Society enough to handle this responsibly so better yet a new third party body). It is roughly estimated that 4.5 million would be generated from an 8% tourist tax and if nearly half of that is for the festival itself the change which could be generated would be immense. For example, money could be put into all the ideas I am about to list...
2. Genuinely affordable housing to be ring fenced for artists and venues too (and bursaries for marginalised artists):
Housing and venue costs are almost always one of the major issues for any artist planning to take part in the festival. For a room in a flat for the month, even a good deal will see you parting with at least a grand (if you’re lucky). And a small venue room at one of the big four (Pleasance, Underbelly, Assembly and Guilded Ballon) will set you back at least three grand. Yes there is student accommodation and “Free fringe”, but both of these are expensive and unsuitable for marginalised artists for a variety of reasons. So the alternative simply isn’t sustainable or affordable for any apart from the deeply privileged. Many artists risk their life savings on moments like this and never make the money back. For those from middle and upper class backgrounds this may just be about doable however it is obviously an immense barrier for those from working class/bpoc backgrounds. All artists deserve the right to affordable accommodation at the festival and working class and bpoc folk must be prioritised and should have access to accommodation which is paid for by the festival itself (I will explain more later).
3. Cap on profiteering during August:
This being said, all people deserve the right to be able to afford to come to the city during August. The festival itself doesn’t run on the city being busy, it runs on ticket sales. But many punters are increasingly choosing not to come to Edinburgh during August due to airbnb and hotels vastly increasing their prices by up to 300%. This isn’t acceptable and will eventually hurt audience numbers in an irrevocable way. Hotels and airbnbs must be limited in the amount they are allowed to charge and this will also help slow Edinburgh’s ludicrously expensive rental market (which is inflated by the festival every year).
4. Appease locals with cheap tickets for them and designated flyering zones ( I am banning flyering on the Mile)
One of the biggest issues the festival is facing is that it is generally loathed by the locals. Whilst, yes, the population does double during August, there is still half of the city which doesn't want to engage with its own crown jewel. This must be rectified. Partly it’s that locals don’t think the festival is for them, either financially or in the work they want to see (it does feel like Scottish artists are represented less and less every year), and also that their city is given over to rich Londoners to run around every year whilst they, the locals, get nothing in return. As a means of bringing locals closer to the festival I would allocate cheap, discounted tickets for any show not selling out made available to residents that have an Edinburgh postcode; which would also fill seats that otherwise wouldn’t get filled. I’d also add designated flyering zones so that locals would feel like they had more of their city to themselves and could avoid hot spots. For instance Bristo Square is an obvious fringe zone in August and should be a flyering zone as it’s easily avoided. The Royal Mile is not. It’s also a thoroughfare for all tourism and not just the fringe. By banning flyering on the Mile it would free up the city’s main high street and allow locals to feel like the city is still theirs.
5. Extra ring fenced funding for Margalanised Artists:
The Fringe Society and big venues constantly talk about wanting to be more diverse in their programming and yet nothing is done to make this a reality. A few funds are left for all marginalised artists to apply to and in reality they are nothing better than tiny plasters on a massive issue. The issue itself is that the festival is homogenous as fuck. It is white, it is middle class, it is able bodied and it is not interested in seeing things beyond its world. For example I experienced such pain when watching some amazing bpoc shows this year – which would have killed with a partisan audience – get nothing but a titter. Reviewers are typically also from this demographic and more readily reward white men doing shows about race and racism than bpoc performers doing the same. Thus no one reviews bpoc performers and so no one takes a risk on them, and so they don’t sell tickets and lose large amounts of money despite presenting work which is just as good as their white counterparts. This is also true across many margalised artists from the deaf communities, disabled communities and to a slightly lesser extent queer communities. Therefore members of these communities require additional support. Their work will one day change the world and the idea that as a society we shouldn’t be shouldering that risk with them is unacceptable. We don’t need another all white, all middle class, mostly male production of Hamlet. And yet somehow there are always 20 every fringe.
There were over 3500 shows at the fringe this year. Whilst I love that anyone can bring a show to the festival, it is also too big. More needs to be done around selecting shows and not just taking on people who can afford it; for example, I would stop wealthy schools coming in to put on productions in a heartbeat. And as always banning the silent disco won’t solve anything but it should still be done, because fuck those guys. If my suggestions were implemented they wouldn’t solve the festival’s issues overnight but I really do think they are practical and would go a long way towards making the festival as diverse and sustainable as it deserves to be.
Author’s note on bpoc artists’ experiences of this year’s fringe and what it means for us as a community.
As I said a year ago I was all full of optimism for what the festival is and can be, and in many ways I still am. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that this year was fairly devastating for me as a bpoc creative at the fringe. I cannot speak for all, but I know many of us have always felt like we exist on the margins of the festival. Fringe of Colour’s amazing work has gone a long way to helping us find each other, but the majority of Edinburgh’s audiences are yet to follow suit. And then this year, in week two of fringe, our community were trying to do shows whilst watching actual fascists throw petrol bombs at refugee centres.
I know I was in shock, and didn’t know how to respond. I sat next to white men wearing conservative party badges as a joke at a brown woman’s show. As I realised how devastated I was by such events and the fact that our country still has so many that would take to the streets to push black and brown people away and so many who would just watch them do it, I questioned what I was doing here. I guess I was waiting for the Fringe Community to throw its arms around me and my bpoc siblings. But it did not. I don’t know a bpoc person who wasn’t affected by these events but the white Fringe community basically didn’t seem to care: they were too busy, they had shows to do and the fact that fellow performers were going through hell really didn’t seem to register.
This year, in week two of fringe, our community were trying to do shows whilst watching actual fascists throw petrol bombs at refugee centres.
There were no vigils, no rallies, no Fringe Artists stand with Artists of colour. You were lucky if a white artist knew you were talking about racism and not the Fringe when you said it had been a hard week. The Fringe Society didn’t even send out an email reassuring its bpoc performers that they were safe at the festival. Barring a few well meaning individuals we were left to ourselves as bpoc folk and all I learned is that we are an amazing community of resilient and brilliant people. I cried at Nish Kumar’s show (not just because he bought us all drinks at the amazing party Sophie Duker threw), the first bit of hope and acknowledgment I had felt at the festival.
But by the end of the month it was very much back to business as usual, the Festival Community following the suit of the news cycle and no longer talking about it. I would have sort of just seen this as par for the course if it wasn’t for the (correct) indignation about the cutting of Creative Scotland funding (which I am of course devastated about too). But so many people who couldn’t raise an eyebrow over actual fascists in the streets are suddenly horrified that their one person spoken word comedy show might not get funding.
I guess all I’m trying to say here is that if - as a community of performers and artists - if we cannot stand by our most vulnerable at a time when they need us most, do we deserve to call ourselves a community? How can we call for the fringe powers to step outside of their bubbles to be better for us when we won’t step outside our bubbles for others? We must stand together now more than ever and as a person of colour who has done eight fringes I have never felt less a part of it. Change is desperately needed at the top, but clearly it is needed at a grassroots level too. All artists deserve community and solidarity and if we aren’t capable of it then perhaps we don’t deserve the Edinburgh Fringe after all…