Fringe supremo calls for city support

The head of the biggest venue on the Edinburgh Fringe has renewed calls for the city to give more wholehearted support for the festival.

In his last opening speech as artistic director of the Pleasance, Christopher Richardson,  called on businesses and the council to back the event to ensure its dominance  on the world stage.

He said the spiralling cost of coming to the festival could start to affect the quality or quantity of shows being staged.

Speaking at the official launch of his venue’s programme this morning, Richardson said: ‘This is the largest gathering of like-minded  people on the planet. We at the Pleasance would be the largest festival in the world – were we not part of an even bigger one.

‘Any other town in the world would love this festival, and maybe they’ll do it better than us. Let’s make sure they don’t.’

He highlighted a recent study in to the economic contribution of Edinburgh’s festivals which found that they contributed £135 million to the Scottish economy, with the Fringe ‘this little herbaceous border’, responsible for £70million of the total.

Yet the event receives just £700,000 in public money, relying on the willingness of performers to sustain a loss to continue.

Citing a figure of £10,000 to stage a show, Richardson added; ‘It costs heaps of money. some accommodation costs have gone up 15 per cent this year, so somebody’s doing well out of it.’

And while acknowledging that most participants invested in the Fringe in the hope of recouping it if they became  a  star later, he  added, half-jokingly: ‘You only have to look around this room to see it – no one’s doing particularly well.’ Richardson, who is retiring as artistic director of the Fringe after 21 years, also called on Fringe-goers  to explore smaller venues away from the Pleasance-Assembly Rooms-Underbelly-Gilded Balloon axis. ‘It’s extremely important to look elsewhere,’ he said.  ‘That’s where the Fringe really starts.’

 

Published: 4 Aug 2005