Inspiration

The city fills up with visitors from all over the globe with, it has been speculated, the population in the centre doubling over the course of the wonderful madness that is Edinburgh in August.

The cost of taking a show to Edinburgh has increased steadily over the years and, as the Fringe has got bigger, so has the risk.

For some, Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, is an option and this year there is a new partnership between Kickstarter and the Fringe Society in which Kickstarter is offering incentives to Fringe creatives who are using the funding platform to crowdfund their work.

This includes an online Fringe Cast about crowdfunding and 1:1 coaching and they are also providing support for a programme of events focused on health and wellbeing at Fringe Central, a safe and supportive hub for the Fringe community during the festival.

To date, Edinburgh Festival Fringe artists and companies have raised over $1.5 million from backers.

Another strand of the Society's five-year Blueprint (in which it states its commitment to tackling the prohibitive costs of taking a show to Edinburgh) is addressing the costs of accommodation.

For nigh on ten years, artists have been using TheatreDigsBooker to find somewhere to stay in the overcrowded city and for 2019 The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society entered into partnership with them to help artists find accommodation in the homes of Edinburgh residents at minimal cost.

Given the 24/7 nature of the Fringe, just how many residents will want to give up their spare room at low financial return to nocturnal creatives remains to be seen, but this is a step in the right direction and stands alongside the City's universities providing below market rent rooms specifically for artists.

All that said, the Fringe goes from strength to strength, this year featuring artists representing 63 countries delivering over 3,800 pieces of work.

So what are they all?

Roughly a third are considered to be tackling a social issue through performance, and analysis by the team behind the Sit Up Awards shows that mental health continues to top the list (17.7%), followed by gender and identity (15.5%).

Issues which make the list in single figures are health and disability, the environment, LGBTQ+, grief and death, digital society, race, abuse and bullying, society, human rights and prison, #metoo, addiction, refugees, dementia and Alzheimer's, loneliness, poverty and homeless, and finally ageing.

That leaves another roughly 2,000 performances about something else!

To help visitors navigate the bewildering choice on offer across the Fringe this year, there is a new service available in the form of the Inspiration Machine located on the Mound and online.

If you're not sure what you want to see, at the click/press of a button the Machine will provide three no-obligation randomised suggestions with 10-second video clips supplied by the creatives.

Also hoping to point undecided visitors in the right direction is web-based game FringeMaker.

It encourages players to explore venues and events they otherwise might not by running the game on smartphones with players collecting points to be exchanged for real-life prizes at the Fringe Shop and a grand prize for the player who checks into the highest number of venues.