Call to lure non-Olympic fans to Fringe

A LEADING Festival promoter has warned more need to be done to promote the Capital’s festivals to stop them being overwhelmed by the London Olympics.

The first ten days of the Fringe will clash with the Olympic Games, sparking concerns that ticket sales might suffer.

Now William Burdett-Coutts, artistic director of Assembly Theatre, has said tourism leaders needed to do more to lure audiences away from the games, and encourage Londoners looking to escape the games to come north.

VisitScotland has said it will not go down the same route as tourism bosses in Ireland, who have seen an advert encouraging stressed-out Londoners to get away from it all receive almost 100,000 hits in just a few days. Instead, there will be briefings in London to showcase the Capital’s main events.

Mr Burdett-Coutts said: “We can’t be sure of what impact the Olympics are going to have in Edinburgh, but I know there are a lot of Londoners hacked-off about the level of disruption they are being warned to expect. We should be getting the message out to them that they can get away from all the hassle of the Olympics by coming to Edinburgh.”