Fringe shake-up 'risks breakaway festival'

FEARS are growing over a "breakaway" movement from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over plans to shake-up how the event is run.

The Fringe's board came under fresh fire yesterday over controversial moves to restrict membership of its long-running society for the first time.

New members have been banned from joining before and during this year's festival, preventing them from taking part in a crucial vote later this year on who is eligible for membership and what form the organisation should take in future.

Organisers heard claims that the Fringe's ruling body was increasingly detached from performers, particularly those in free shows, and that major venues selling tens of thousands of tickets had become too dominant.

Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland has promised a review of festival marketing after complaints were heard about the scrapping of a published "daily diary" of all shows. A contentious charge to allow street performers to stage free shows on the Royal Mile and at Mound has also had to be ditched after a backlash.

Yesterday's Fringe AGM heard a number of complaints about the way the shake-up had been handled, including trying to block new members before a policy decision had been made, and rescheduling a crucial vote on the shake-up outwith the festival.

Critics claim the Fringe's "open access" policy - established at the first event in 1947 - is being put at risk. One US performer, David Mulholland, said: "The Fringe has claimed just 14 people were unable to join as members this year, but I know for a fact that that figure is wrong. People were being rejected before the decision to suspend memberships was even made. There is a great deal of dissent among performers at the moment and a real risk that there is going to be a proper breakaway from the Fringe."

However Charlie Wood, director of the Underbelly, and a member of the Fringe board, said: "I don't get the sense of a schism at the moment, but it's crucial that the Fringe remains an open-access festival."

Mainland also revealed yesterday that the Fringe had returned to profit last year, to the tune of 125,000, after a box office crisis in 2008 triggered a loss of 882,000, almost bankrupting the organisation.