Fringe given £125k council loan

Published on Wednesday 9 September 2009 22:09

THE Edinburgh Festival Fringe is to get another major loan from the city council in an effort to ease the financial crisis triggered by last year's box-office crisis, The Scotsman can reveal.

Council officials have recommended the festival is given a repeat of a "one-off" loan of 125,000 which it was given last December in an attempt to stave off bankruptcy.

A report for the local authority said the Fringe needed more help, but added that the cash was due to be returned to the council by next March.

The Fringe repaid the previous loan in March of this year, but is still struggling to recover from the impact of last year's box-office woes, caused by the failure of a new ticketing system.

Although this year's Fringe was the most successful in its history, last month's AGM heard that the festival was taken to "the edge of the abyss" as it was left almost 900,000 out of pocket.

It is likely to be several months before the Fringe recoup money due to it from venues that took part in this year's record-breaking festival, which saw ticket sales up 9 per cent on the previous best in 2007.

The Fringe was given a 250,000 lifeline last December thanks to the council and financial packages from the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

Talks are ongoing with the arts council over a new one-off grant, thought to be in the region of the 65,000 offered last year.

A spokesman for the Fringe said: "Although we have had our most successful year in 2009, there are still cash-flow issues we are addressing from last year."