Exit stage left … Fringe chief Morgan steps down after ticket fiasco

THE Edinburgh Fringe was left leaderless yesterday at a critical time after its director, Jon Morgan, suddenly stepped down after a tumultuous summer.

Mr Morgan quit barely 15 months after taking the helm of what he called "the greatest arts festival on the planet". His last month was dominated by acrimonious rows over the failures of a new box office system.

This week the Fringe announced that during Mr Morgan's first full Festival as director, ticket sales had fallen 10 per cent, the first drop in eight years.

Two inquiries into what went wrong are under way, but Mr Morgan had insisted that even though he accepted his job was on the line, he had nothing to fear from them. Top Fringe figures, however, saw his resignation as inevitable.

William Burdett Coutts, the Assembly venue director and a Fringe veteran, said: "It's no surprise, and I think he's probably done the right thing. It's very hard not to resign after what's happened this year."

Others were shocked by the timing, in a week when Fringe theatre operators are still packing up. "We thought he would at least stay until the inquiries and the fallout had finished," said Matt Beer, of Zoo venues.

The Fringe board now has the task of choosing a new ticketing system and a new director. It has announced an inquiry into what went wrong with the ticketing system, as well as a broad review of how the Festival is run, driven by demands that the 50-year-old organisation be remade from the ground up.

Mr Morgan came to the Fringe from the Contact Theatre in Manchester and said he wanted to return to his "first love", producing and presenting performances. The Fringe director's job has traditionally been an administrative one of assembling acts, running the box office, trouble-shooting crises and acting as a public spokesman.

The box office failed on the Fringe's opening day. Anger quickly grew when venues discovered that the new Liquid box office system had been launched with no back-up in place.

One Fringe source said Mr Morgan was an "arty man" rather than an administrator. "The first week when the ticket system failed, I would have handed in my resignation, because the core function of what the Fringe needed to do didn't work."

Mr Morgan declined to be interviewed yesterday, but said he would continue to work with the reviews. In his defence, he was left a legacy of a box office system on its last legs. He described arriving as director in June 2007, six weeks before that year's Festival, to learn that the current WTS (world ticketing system) was no longer supported by the company and a change had to be made quickly. He was also faced with a row over whether the new Edinburgh Comedy Festival would split the Fringe.

The Fringe board yesterday thanked Mr Morgan for his contribution facing "an unprecedented range of challenges".

But Laura Mackenzie Stuart, of Universal Arts, said: "It will suit the Fringe board very well that he is going because it will look as if he is carrying the can. There is a need to go to the top to identify the decision-making failures."

Faith Liddell, the director of the Festivals Edinburgh organisation, called Mr Morgan a "great colleague".