Fringe goes from brink of collapse to profit of £300,000 in two years

ORGANISERS of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have notched up a profit of £300,000 - just two years after being taken to the brink of bankruptcy.

The dramatic collapse of its box office in 2008 led to the event being around 1 million out of pocket and in need of a 250,000 lifeline from the public purse.

However, record ticket sales, the scrapping of the costly Fringe Sunday event, new grants and lucrative sponsorship deals have all helped turn around the Fringe's finances under new chief executive Kath Mainland.

While the Fringe spent some 2.56m last year on the likes of staffing, marketing, producing its programme and running the box office, it generated 2.86m from ticket sales, fees from visiting groups, performers, sponsorship and grants. However, the Fringe has again boosted its box office figures by including estimates of people who attended some - but not all - of the many free Fringe performances.

Although a record 1.82 million tickets were sold last year, the annual report said an "estimated" 1.95 million people had attended registered events. Controversy flared last year when the Fringe insisted free shows were an "integral" part of the event.

The Fringe has had to rely on loans from the city council to cover "cashflow" problems as a legacy of the 2008 crisis, when ticket sales slumped by around 10 per cent and the Fringe was hit with extra costs as a result of having to draft in additional staff and a new computer system.

Edinburgh city council, the then Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government were all involved in the initial bail-out for the Fringe.

The new arts agency, Creative Scotland, agreed a 70,000 grant last year, while the city council's grant was 100,000. A further loan of 75,000 was offered from the council.

The Scottish Government also gave the Fringe 125,000 to support the Made in Scotland strand of home-grown shows.

The Fringe's new annual report states: "If 2009 was a year for restoring confidence in the Fringe as an institution and the Fringe Society as an organisation, then 2010 was a year for demonstrating the potential future growth of both the Fringe as an event and the society as the organisation which underpins and supports that event."

Ms Mainland said: "Last year was another unprecedented success story. More companies than ever chose to show their wares to the world at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and more audiences than ever before were there ready and eager to see them."

Last year's Fringe saw sponsorship deals with the Caledonian Brewery and Mackie's ice-cream unveiled.Earlier this month, it emerged that a 500,000, three-year deal with Virgin Media had been clinched to secure the future of the free performance spaces on the Royal Mile and The Mound.