Chortle opportunities at the Edinburgh Fringe

Here's what we are doing editorially and commercially at this year's festival

Here's information for performers and producers on what Chortle will be doing at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. Email feedback@chortle.co.uk to talk more...

ADVERTISING

This is the most important bit! So many people clamour for reviews, but the bottom line is that the number we can cover is directly related to the income, since we use only professional reviewers.

So please do pass this information on to whoever makes the decisions if it’s not you…

We have a large comedy-savvy audience – 335,000 unique visitors, racking up just over 1million page views for August 2022.

We also promise to review any show spending at least £250 on advertising this Fringe. It doesn’t mean we’ll only review advertisers by any stretch but it does jump them to the ‘guaranteed to be reviewed’ list. Nothing jumps anyone on to the ‘guaranteed to be liked’ list, of course! There are no promises on anything other than that we will review the show at some point in the run.

Here are this year’s rates: https://www.chortle.co.uk/about/2017/04/25/36289/edinburgh_fringe_advertising_on_chortle

THE BIG QUESTIONS

At the start of the festival, we’ll do a series of articles rounding up participants views on some of the bigger issues facing the Fringe, if anyone would like to contribute, the questions are here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSMTOBa_q1q7HWvLapngHjpAgJUdeSeFVP156AgabRMMyF0A/viewform?usp=sf_link

We might not be able to use everyone, but the idea is to get an overview of people’s thoughts. This will run in week zero and be closed to new response in early July.

PERFECT PLAYLIST

WE HAVE ENOUGH OF THESE NOW

The comic picks six stand-up shows, sitcoms, comedy films, etc that mean something to them and write a couple of paragraphs about why. Basically Desert Island Discs, but for comedy. There are examples here: http://www.chortle.co.uk/perfectplaylist

Those who do this should already have some existing Fringe/comedy profile and not have done one before. We’ll run one each day, so there's a limited number. Please don't send on spec as you may be wasting your time! Just indicate if you're interested and we'll get back to you if we can take it

EDINBURGH FRINGE BINGE/CRINGE/WHINGE

WE HAVE ENOUGH OF THESE NOW

In which the performer writes about their:

Edinburgh binge: Basically the best part of the festival, what they enjoy doing and want to do more of this year

Edinburgh cringe: Most embarrassing story from the festival, and

Edinburgh whinge: What’s the worst thing about the Fringe? We’re probably going to add the proviso ‘…except for the crippling cost of accommodation’ to this, else everyone is likely to say the same thing. If you have a good idea/insight on that issue, do feel free to include it anyway since it is obviously the biggest issue facing the festival – but we’re aware it could get quite repetitive, so encourage more variety of answers!

Performers should answer all 3. As a guideline we’re looking for 400 words or more for the whole feature. Again don't send on spec

HOW IT STARTED/HOW IT’S GOING

WE HAVE ENOUGH OF THESE NOW

We ask performers at the very start of the Fringe a series of questions about what they expect from the festival, then follow-up in the second half to see how reality matches up to expectation. There’s a limited number of these, since they’ll only run in the last two weeks, and aimed at real newbies. Ideally comics who have never been to the Fringe at all so don’t know what to expect,

OPINION

Comics can write think pieces on any aspect of comedy or the Fringe - and to run at any time. What they shouldn’t be is blog posts charting their experiences at the festival, but more on an opinion on the state of the industry or the art.

Feel free to run ideas past me before you commit to writing something if you're unsure - or just submit. Word count is pretty flexible, but 500-1000 is typical.

IMAGES

We need hi-ish res pictures for all the shows. If we don't have yours, please email or dropbox it over. You can tell from this page what’s missing:

https://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_2023

PUNCHING UP

We’re always looking for fun and entertaining stories for this section, so if something interesting happens during the fringe or the build-up, do share it!

EARLY PREVIEWS

If there are any shows that are happy to be seen at a preview before the Fringe either in London, the South East anytime between now and the start of the Fringe or in Edinburgh on the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday of Edinburgh’s ‘week zero’ let me know (obviously you can do this nearer the time). But they should be fully ready to go as there’ll be no caveats about it being a preview or mention of where we saw it in the review. The upside is you get a review published in the first few days of the run which - if it's good! - could be good early publicity.

FAST FRINGE

We’re doing this at the Pleasance Dome at 1900 daily, with 12 acts each doing three minutes: we display the show details during each slot, and you’re invited to exit-flyer. We’re especially interested in anything that’s not straight stand-up. It pays a nominal £5 (or you can donate that to a pot we’ll give to charity at the end of the run). I realise this might be beyond the remit of PR, so acts can contact me directly.

Published: 11 May 2022