Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Venues enjoy booming kick-off, as sales soar and the punters pour in

The strong turn-out on the first weekend of the Fringe will be a relief for big venue operators, who have invested close to 1 million between them on significant new stages this year.

There were warnings yesterday that busy early days will not guarantee success through to the Fringe's end on the 30 August, particularly as the Scottish school holidays draw to a close.

But in one optimistic sign, venues noted that the strength of Sunday sales had continued, even though the Fringe's "two for one" ticket deals had moved away from the weekend to today and tomorrow.

William Burdett Coutts, director of the Assembly venues, said: "The walk-up on Saturday was extraordinary, and we had 15-20 sellouts, which was amazing."

One big attraction has been the new Assembly venue in Princes Street Gardens, with a mirrored Spiegeltent erected over the Ross Bandstand site. The Assembly has invested an estimated 600,000 in construction and running costs this month.

Other big Fringe outfits echoed reports of an "unbelievably busy" weekend. Pleasance director Anthony Alderson said: "It is interesting that moving the two-for-one day off the Sunday has not dampened the numbers."

But he noted: "Last year we were up vastly early on, but ended slightly up by the end of the festival and I suspect it may be the same."

The key was bringing audiences in from the south in the festival's last week, he said — Scottish children will be back at school, while England has a late August bank holiday.

There were milling crowds at the huge festival hub on Bristo Square yesterday. The Gilded Balloon venue reported Friday ticket sales worth more than 50,000, three times last year's, with buzz building round shows such as stand-up Caroline Rhea.

"Advance sales were strong but the walk-up has been fantastic," said founding director Karen Koren. "It's like people have been desperate for the festival to start."

The Underbelly's new theatre in the University of Edinburgh's McEwan Hall is already a big draw. It is costing a reported quarter of a million pounds to construct and run this August, but sold out all 1,000 tickets for Jim Jeffries and other top-name comedians on Saturday.

"We've got to get people in the door," said the venue co-director Ed Bartlam. "We've got big acts in there and it's a big capacity." On Saturday Underbelly sold a staggering 85,000 worth of tickets in one 24-hour period.

'Time for women to stand up and be counted'

The debate over whether women can apply for an equal footing in the comedy world is over, the producer of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards said yesterday.

Nica Burns, celebrating the awards' 30th year, said 20 per cent of the comedy shows on the Fringe this year featured female comedians.

Awards staff said that the figure could run higher with sketch shows and mixed programmes.

In the past two decades just two women — Jenny Eclair and Laura Solon — have won the main prize in the awards.

"Women have come, and the time for 'where are the women' is over, because we are now up on the playing field," Ms Burns insisted.

"It's now whether they are as good, or not as good."

Ms Burns, a Fringe producer for three decades and a London theatre boss recalled that when she first produced a comedy show for a friend in 1992 she got a phone call asking why she was promoting comedy.

"This is a man's game; you're a girl, get out of it," the caller told her.

Behind the scenes the big comedy agents include Hannah Chambers, promoting and managing Flight of the Conchords, Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle.

"Twenty per cent of the shows this year have got women comedians in them. "You might say that's not very much, but what's the percentage of women who are board directors of FTSE100 companies, or on the boards of the big legal firms?

"It's really a big step forward."