COST OF LIVING COULD BE IMPACTING THE FRINGE
Ticket sales for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe have been slower than organisers would have hoped, with the cost of living crisis believed to be major factor
Assembly, one of the Fringe’s biggest operators, said ticket sales have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Edinburgh is set to host more than 3,000 shows when it starts later this week.
The Assembly’s general manager Dani Rae (pictured above) warned ticket sales could be slower due to a trend of people booking later for live events, in the wake of Covid-19.
She said: “We are not quite at 2019 levels but we are creeping up towards it. We are conscious of the cost of living which is why we’ve done a welcome back offer where we have 35,000 tickets for a fiver.”
The Fringe was cancelled completely in 2020 because of the pandemic but made a limited return last year with about 600 shows. This year the festival will be almost the same size as 2019 but there are concerns rising accommodation and food costs could put some off.
An Edinburgh Fringe spokeswoman commented that tickets sales had been promising but people were not booking as early as they had done previously.
She said: “As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we recognise that the UK is also experiencing a heightened cost of living. We expect booking patterns to be different this year and anticipate many visitors will be making late decisions on how often to visit the Fringe.”
Ms Rae added: “There is a real pressure on the city to look at how we support artists and visitors to come and stay. It is going to have an impact but I think people are going to need a good time to weather that storm.”
In total, the Edinburgh summer festivals, which also include the International festival, book festival and film festival, are estimated to be worth more than £300m to Scotland’s economy.
Businesses in the heart of Edinburgh, which heavily rely on international tourists, were devastated when foreign inbound travel was banned during the pandemic. Kicking off on the 5th of August and running till the 29th of August this will be the 75th year of the fringe. It will see top comedians such as Frankie Boyle and Reginald D Hunter, Drag shows and performances from big name actors such as Sir Ian McKellen staring in production of Hamlet.
