Karen Koren: Can George Street do festival business?

By Karen Koren
Published on 31/05/2012 15:08

I AM having another busy day.

The Fringe launch their brochure this morning and we - Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly - launch ours at 6pm.

Every year, one of our directors makes a speech on behalf of us all, this year it is the turn of Assembly director William Burdett Coutts.

He’s never been known for his short speeches, however, we’ve all said that we’d prefer something less than 20 to 30 minutes long - people tend to zone out.

And after all, we already have the best shows on the Fringe, and though we are not exactly allowed to say that, the inference is there.

William likes to make a point and be controversial so that the press will write something about us, though in truth, there is nothing terribly controversial to tell you... a few new venues have been added, but they are not huge rooms, they just allow us to put on more shows.

There is more controversy in the fact that the Famous Speigeltent is setting up outside the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms. The hope is to shut off part of George Street and create a fun, Fringe venue in that part of the city. It will be very difficult to make this happen if Princes Street is still in the state it is at the moment - an utter embarrassment to the city.

If Fringe goers cannot move around freely, having the successful Le Clique and the Famous Spiegel Gardens in the New Town will be pointless.

There is also the added problem that George Street is now very much the area where young drinkers go to hang out. It will not be attractive to be in the area when the drunken youth of today ruin the area with their shouting, falling and girls teetering around in high heels, false tans and shades of TOWIE. I wish the project well but not for me I’m afraid!