Fringe thrown Scottish Government cash lifeline to help stave off insolvency threat

Scottish culture secretary announced the lifeline package for the Fringe Society today. Picture: John DevlinScottish culture secretary announced the lifeline package for the Fringe Society today. Picture: John Devlin
Scottish culture secretary announced the lifeline package for the Fringe Society today. Picture: John Devlin
The Scottish Government has thrown the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe a £1.1 million lifeline after they warned of a risk of insolvency due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop has announced a £1 million interest free loan and £149,000 in funding from a “resilience” fund for the Fringe Society, which runs the official website, box office and programme for the event “to enable its return next year.”

Edinburgh City Council has agreed to provide an additional £100,000 grant, which it said would help “ensure the survival” of the event after a cash crisis triggered by the official cancellation of this year's Fringe.

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Hundreds of shows were already on sale for this year’s event when the plug was pulled on 1 April. As well as refunding tickets, the Fringe Society also committed to refund fees paid by companies and venues.

Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy warned last month that it had been left on a “financial knife edge” by the cancellation, which had created a deficit of more than £1.5 million.

She issued an urgent appeal for help at the time, saying the society was trying to “build the life raft to ensure the Fringe can come out the other side of this” but also admitted “survival is not assured.”

The society later warned of a risk of insolvency unless the black hole in its finances could be filled, adding: “A catastrophic year, brought on by Covid-19, could lead to the loss of Edinburgh's infrastructure as the world's leading festival city, and the pivotal role the Fringe plays for the UK creative industries.”

Ms Hyslop said the rescue package would ensure that that the world-famous cultural celebration would be able to “bounce back” in 2021.

She said: “This has been an extremely worrying time for people whose livelihoods, careers and well-being have been affected by Covid-19 and the cancellation of festivals such as the Fringe.

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"The money will be used to mitigate the significant losses incurred as the result of the cancellation of this year's festival due to the impact of coronavirus, and to invest in future years of the Fringe.

"As we know, the Fringe is one of greatest cultural exports and this funding package will help ensure the world-renowned festival can bounce back in 2021.

“Many performers, cultural organisations and businesses rely on the festival and I hope it can build on its previous major successes to safely return to the international stage.”

Ms McCarthy said today: “This funding is a life raft to the Fringe Society, enabling us to properly support the extensive ecosystem of artists, venues and businesses who rely on the Fringe.

“This festival is about much more than three weeks in August. It’s an embodiment of how culture and creativity unites us, and in this incredibly difficult time, we’re grateful to be working so closely with our partners on this common goal.”

City council leader Adam McVey said: “We’re incredibly proud to be known as the world’s ‘Festival City’ and are well aware of the positive cultural, social and economic life of the city contribution our festivals make to our residents and visitors.

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“We worked quickly to help our Fringe festival get through the enormous challenge of COVID-19, working with the Scottish Government to put resources in place to ensure the festival’s survival.

“I look forward to welcoming back the Fringe, and all our summer festivals.”

Some of the biggest companies staging shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have warned they may not survive to return to the event in 2021 without the help of public funding.

Assembly, Underbelly, Gilded Balloon, Summerhall and Pleasance are among the signatories to a letter to a Holyrood inquiry into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which warns that long-running Fringe companies face “considerable costs to survive” with no income and little or no financial reserves.

An alliance of venue producers has told MSPs that most of them have been unable to access any financial support during the Covid-19 crisis.

Among the main reasons cited are that many of them are based outside Scotland and not seen as Scottish even, though most of their work is in Scotland.

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Other signatories to the letter from the Association of Independent Venue Producers include the Bedlam Theatre, the Acoustic Music Centre, Greenside, Just the Tonic, Sweet and Zoo.

The Fringe Society’s own submission to Holyrood’s culture committee said it had already furloughed 70 per cent of its own staff, made four workers redundant and imposed a 20 per cent pay cut on its remaining workforce.

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