Soaring Fringe costs mean comedy is 'becoming more elitist', comedian Matt Forde warns

The cost of performing at the Edinburgh festival Fringe is making comedy “more elitist”, a leading stand-up has warned.

Comedian Matt Forde said the “Edinburgh model” is making it “almost impossible to become a working-class, successful comedian in this country”.

Giving evidence to a Westminster select committee on the live comedy sector, Mr Fforde, 42, who presented political satire programme Unspun, said: “A lot of comedy clubs, the money has gone backwards since when I first started gigging. The money has got worse.”

“People face higher costs and less money for the work that they’re doing, and then, really, until the birth of TikTok and social media, the main way really to get discovered as a comedian, to really get a career on the whole – and this isn’t true for everyone – was to really have a successful Edinburgh Festival.

“And performing at the Edinburgh Festival costs a fortune, and the single biggest cost is accommodation.”

Last year, the Fringe Society submitted evidence to the Scottish Government warning of an accommodation crisis in the city during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The organisation said the costs faced by performers and companies trying to book long-term accommodation in August had soared by up to 300 per cent in the space of six years, with up to £9,000 now being charged to stay in a one-bedroom flat in the city for the entirety of the event.

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Mr Forde added: “The single biggest barrier to be able to perform, and indeed visit the Edinburgh Festival, is the exorbitant rents that landlords charge.

“And year after year it has gone up and up and up, and I think performers and audience members are prepared to pay a bit of a premium for staying in someone’s house that they’ve had to vacate for a month.

“But it is growing exponentially year on year on year, and that is meaning that comedy at that level is becoming more elitist.”

Mr Forde said that the “only people” who can afford to do hours of unpaid work in the hopes that comedy will become a full-time job “are privileged people”.

Comedian Matt Forde giving evidence about the state of play in live comedy, before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in the House of Commons, London. | PA

“And then the only people that can afford to perform at Edinburgh, and indeed visit Edinburgh, are privileged people,” he said.

Last year, ex-BBC presenter Gail Porter said she had been “priced out” of attending the festival in her hometown due to “the soaring costs of B&Bs”.

Mr Forde said: “The Edinburgh model is making it almost impossible to become a working-class successful comedian in this country, and the lack of recognition from Government, I should add, is part of that problem.”

He also discussed the benefits of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels bringing a British version of the long-running US sketch comedy show to Sky - warning that the show would not “dramatically change the culture” in the UK.

“I’m really excited that SNL is coming to the UK. I think it’s a very good thing,” he said. “I think we need more topical comedy on telly. We need more sketch on telly.

“You go to the Edinburgh Festival, you see amazing sketch shows, it’s a real breeding ground for talent. It’s a different discipline to individual stand-up, and there should be more of it on telly.

“But I think SNL in itself isn’t going to dramatically change the culture here.”

Edinburgh Festival Fringe has helped to launch the careers of numerous comedians and writers.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge premiered her play Fleabag at the festival and Richard Gadd performed Baby Reindeer there, before it was transformed into a hit Netflix series.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s evidence session was the first in a series of hearings to be held as part of the State Of Play inquiry, which has invited everyone from those in the UK creative industries that are often overlooked to send in their ideas on what MPs should be examining.