Leader: Fringe must apologise over fiddled figures

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 14:57

Earlier this week we reported, in good faith, the story that ticket sales at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe had soared by more than 95,000 to a record new level this year.

At the time the organisers told us the addition of major new venues and a 17 per cent rise in the number of individual productions were major factors behind what was described by the Fringe as extra ticket sales. It was a good news story for the Fringe and for Scotland, and we said so.

Except it turns out that is not the case. In fact the Fringe officials approached one of two major promoters running free shows at the Fringe and included estimates of attendances in the final "record-breaking" box office figure, adding at least an extra 100,000 to the final box office tally, a number not dissimilar to the increase that allowed them to claim a new record had been broken. Even worse, they did the same thing last year.

The Fringe appears to have been caught out fiddling their figures. At the very least they have been economical with the actualit. Either way, this kind of spin and deception seriously undermines the reputation of the Fringe and its chief executive, Kath Mainland.

If the figures cannot be trusted this will affect sponsorship, commercial links and financial support from the public purse. The consequences of a collapse of confidence in the Fringe as an institution, are unthinkable. The very least Ms Mainland must do is apologise unreservedly, to publish proper independently verifiable figures and to promise this despicable sleight of hand will never happen again.