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The End of the Fringe As We Know It?Dateline: 19th August, 2007In an article in The Scotsman on Thursday 16th August, William Burdett Coutts, director of the Assembly, one of the biggest venues on the Edinburgh Fringe, said that this year, "Even great shows, with great reviews, have not been getting the crowds. It's the first time I have felt there are too many shows in Edinburgh." The same story, the article tells us, is being repeated by all the big venues and some producers. It's hardly surprising because the big venues are expanding every year. There's a joke going around that the Pleasance has a special squad whose sole job it is to explore the place, looking for broom cupboards that can be turned into performance spaces! But it's not just the Pleasance: the Assembly, the Gilded Balloon, the Traverse, C and the Underbelly all have opened new spaces this year. In fact, at the Assembly the Fringe First-winning Scarborough is having to run for three performances a day because the (new) room only holds about twenty people. What Bill Burdett Coutts doesn't mention, but what does have a major impact on ticket sales, is the increase in ticket prices. Some Fringe shows are now charging more than some tickets for International Festival and the EIF shows are mainly full-length whereas the majority of Fringe shows are around an hour long. That surely must have some bearing on the lack of audiences? Although there are some cheaper shows, the lowest price generally is £8.50, even for children's shows, and some are over £12. To those who are only familiar with "normal" theatre, £12 may not seem a lot for a theatre ticket, but the Fringe isn't normal. For a start, "normal" means, perhaps, one visit to the theatre in a week, whereas at the Fringe two or three shows a day is the norm and many people do more, so you're up to a minimum of £25.50 or possibly even £36 (or more) a day - and very few go to the Fringe for just a day. So we have a combination of a vast number of shows (and a limited, if large, audience) and increasing ticket prices. Then there's the uncertainty factor: one of the joys of the Fringe is the possibility of discovering real gold in the most unlikely of places, but conversely the chances of happening on true dross are actually a lot greater. So, do you take the risk or do you go for one of the more commercially bankable shows? Most do the latter, but, because the prices are higher, they have less to spend and so go to fewer shows. What will be interesting will be to see the sale trends for the big venues set against those for the small ones. My own feeling - admittedly based on just four days (but also on the experience of eleven years of Fringe reviewing) - is that the Fringe is splitting into two: the "biggies" and the rest. Already the biggies probably sell the bulk of the tickets; this year Hill Street Universal Arts and Aurora Nova have merged their press, marketing and ticket sales with the Assembly; for a number of years the Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly have run a joint ticketing operation, distinct from the central Fringe office and the Traverse has always operated separately. Are we heading towards three distinct entities: the International Festival, the Fringe and something that is somewhere between the two? Two years ago the Assembly's Burdett Coutts suggested that it might be time for the EIF and the Fringe to unite. The idea was rejected by both (on the very proper grounds that they are entirely different even in their basic concepts), but now both the directors, Brian McMaster of the EIF and Paul Gudgin of the Fringe, have gone, and I would not be totally surprised to see the idea, in some form or other (perhaps having something to do with size?), being bandied about again. One thing is certain: to reduce the number of shows, which is what Burdett Coutts suggested is needed to The Scotsman, can only be done, without compromising the whole raison d'être of the Fringe, by reducing the number of shows at the "biggies", not by expecting the smaller venues, which have remained much truer to the spirit of the Fringe, to risk becoming totally uneconomic. Otherwise it will be the end of the Fringe as we have known it for sixty years.
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