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Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Festival Fringe
A street performer on the High Street in 2010
GenreArts festival
Dates2024: 2–26 August (exact dates vary each year)
Location(s)Edinburgh, Scotland
Years active1947–present
Founded1947 (1947)
Websiteedfringe.com

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.[1][2]

Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to (and on the "fringe" of) the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August.[3] The combination of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events.[4]

It is an open-access (or "unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning that there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children's shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions, and events. Comedy is the largest section, making up over one-third of the programme, and the one that in modern times has the highest public profile, due in part to the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

The Festival is supported by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, which publishes the programme, sells tickets to all events from a central physical box office and website, and offers year-round advice and support to performers. The Society's permanent location is at the Fringe Shop on the Royal Mile, and in August they also manage Fringe Central, a separate collection of spaces dedicated to providing support for Fringe participants during their time at the festival.

The Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, many of whom are Fringe participants themselves – performers or venue operators. Elections are held once a year, in August, and board members serve a term of four years. The Board appoints the Fringe Society's Chief Executive (formerly known as the Fringe Administrator or Director).[5] The Chief Executive operates under the chair.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whose show Fleabag was performed at the Fringe in 2013 before it was adapted for television, was named the first-ever President of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society in 2021.[6]

The planned 2020 Fringe Festival was suspended along with all of the city's other major summer festivals. This came as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the early months of the year, with concerns of spreading the virus any further.[7][8]

The 2021 festival took place during 6–30 August 2021, though it was much reduced in size, with 528 shows in person and 414 online.[9] The 2022 festival took place from 5–29 August 2022 and marked a return to pre-pandemic levels, with 3,334 shows.[10] Fifty were livestreamed, by NextUp Comedy, for the first time ever since the founding of The Fringe, in an effort to stay true to The Fringe Society's 2022 vision of equality and inclusiveness.[11] The 2025 festival is scheduled from August 1 to 25.[12]

  1. ^ Street, 180 High; Edinburgh; Eh1 1qs; Kingdom +44131 226 0026, United. "Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 invites audiences to #UnleashYourFringe as full programme revealed". Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Retrieved 21 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Street, 180 High; Edinburgh; Eh1 1qs; Kingdom +44131 226 0026, United. "As the 2024 Fringe closes – an open letter from Chief Executive, Shona McCarthy". Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Retrieved 13 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference edfringeabout was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (14 July 2019). "The comedians are ready and so are the crowds ... but where are the Edinburgh critics?". The Observer. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference edfringeboard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Street, 180 High; Edinburgh; Eh1 1qs; Kingdom +44131 226 0026, United. "Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the Fringe Society's first President". Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Retrieved 22 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Saunders, Emmeline (1 April 2020). "Edinburgh Festival Fringe cancelled this summer over coronavirus outbreak". mirror. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  8. ^ McCarthy, Shona (1 April 2020). "2020 Fringe announcement from Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive". Edinburgh Fringe. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  9. ^ "Review of the year 2021". edfringe.shorthandstories.com. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  10. ^ "The first steps towards recovery as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 comes to a close". Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 29 August 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  11. ^ Wiegand, Chris (1 August 2022). "The best theatre to stream this month: Edinburgh fringe, Jane Eyre and more". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 invites audiences to #UnleashYourFringe as full programme revealed". edfringe.com. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 22 June 2024.

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