Tickets are now available for more than 170 shows, both online and in-person, at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with more to be announced weekly.
Audiences will be able to access a wide range of Fringe shows through socially distanced in-person events, scheduled online performances and on-demand digital shows, with tickets and information available at the Edfringe web site. One-metre and mask-wearing indoors are still compulsory in Scotland until 9 August, when regulations may change depending on infection and vaccination rates.
There will be two kinds of online events available this year: scheduled and on demand. With scheduled shows, audiences can buy tickets as they would to a traditional in-person event with a dedicated start and end time. For on-demand shows, audiences can buy tickets to watch at their leisure.
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said, “after the year we’ve all had, it brings me an indescribable amount of joy to see Fringe shows going on sale. Fringe operators and artists have been working tirelessly to make this Fringe not only possible, but as safe, accessible and engaging as it can be.
“Things will, of course, look a little different this year. But embracing the unknown and turning it into something magical is what the Fringe does best. I’m excited to see the ways that digital platforms are being used to create exciting, accessible work, and I’m inspired by the way producers and artists have adapted to the ongoing restrictions to bring live performance back to our lives.
“There’s still work to do, and with the situation ever-changing, we’ll be updating the programme and ticket site weekly. I’m proud of the resilience of our Fringe community, and we’re excited to make this festival the very best it can be.”
This year’s Made in Scotland programme includes MOVE at Traverse @ Silverknowes Beach, a performance about migration, collective grief and communal healing. Summerhall Secret Courtyard will feature Trevor Lock’s participatory comedy show Community Circle and new work We Are Each Other, as well as Mamoru Iriguchi’s Sex Education Xplorers (S.E.X.), which takes a time-travel ride through the evolution of sexes. At The Brunton at Musselburgh Racecourse, there will be outdoor performances of Treasure Island and Much Ado About Nothing.
Summerhall Online will present as british as a watermelon, an exploration of artist mandla's rae’s fragmented asylum and migration memories, Eva O’Connor's Mustard about heartbreak, madness and how condiments are the ultimate coping mechanism and her new piece Afloat, set during a climate apocalypse in Dublin and a return of PrimeCut’s My Left Nut, the true story of a Belfast boy growing up with no father to guide him through and a giant ball, plus a range of shows in the Taiwan Season and physical comedy show The Receptionists.
On FringePlayer, there’s a two-woman retelling of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, plus a wealth of theatre at Online@theSpaceUK, including Agave vs the Lion from Flying Solo! Presents, which was inspired by Euripides’ The Bakkhai.
Programmes have yet to be announced for Army @The Fringe, Assembly Festival's two sites and three venues including the Palais de Variete spiegeltent and an outdoor stage in George Square Gardens, C venues' online programme C Arts, a series of digital dance and live shows from Dance Base, a new outdoor venue from Gilded Balloon, ZOO, Traverse Theatre and Dance Base called MultiStory, live Scottish-based theatre and comedy performers at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Just the Tonic, the Laughing Horse Free Fringe Festival, PBH's Free Fringe and the Scottish Storytelling Centre's eight Fringe shows.