Exclusive:How costs for Edinburgh Festival Fringe performers and venues have gone 'absolutely mad' as accommodation bills soar 300 per cent

The cost of bringing shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has gone "absolutely mad" in the wake of the pandemic, leading venue operators have warned.

Fresh warnings about the increasing unsustainability of being involved in the event have been issued ahead of the first shows opening in the Scottish capital next week.

Although there are more than 3300 shows in the official Fringe guide, compared to 3841 in 2019, the number of venues has dropped by almost a fifth over the same period, from 323 to 262 this year.

The Pleasance Courtyard is one of the most popular venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Picture: Andrew Perry

William Burdett-Coutts, artistic director of Assembly, one of the festival's biggest promoters, said its accommodation costs had soared around 300 per cent since before the pandemic, while its infrastructure costs had leapt up by around 50 per cent.

Katy Koren, co-artistic director of the Gilded Balloon, said the Fringe was at risk of losing a “huge potential pool of talent” unless action was taken to tackle its “altogether unsustainable format.”

Pleasance director Anthony Alderson admitted the "cracks were beginning to show" at the Fringe, with the average cost of bringing a one-person show to the event rising from around £10,000 to £15,000 in the space of just five years.

The new warnings over the future of the festival have emerged months after the Fringe Society, the arts charity which oversees the event, admitted that its “old financial models” were no longer sustainable.

Assembly has staged shows in George Square Garden during the Fringe in recent years. Picture: William-Burdett-Coutts

It has warned that Edinburgh is at risk of losing its world-leading status as a “festival city” unless the event was able to attract significant new public funding and has called for £1.5 million to be ringfenced for the Fringe each year.

Several leading Fringe venues joined forces last month to launch a new subscription service offering free and discounted tickets. The initiative is aimed at selling more than 18,000 memberships and distributing more than £400,000 to venues and companies in its first year.

Venues including Gilded Balloon and Summerhall have also highlighted their own initiatives to keep costs as low as possible for artists and audiences.

Mr Burdett-Coutts said: “This is the most remarkable festival in the world. There’s nothing to compare with Edinburgh. What we create here is extraordinary.

Katy Koren and Karen Koren run the Fringe venue operator Gilded Balloon.

“To my mind, it's down to the initiative of so many heroes, who create the event in Edinburgh, and the organisations and shows who come to the festival.

“We are trying to do something positive to pull together the interests of the festival after we’ve been through a really difficult period.

"The costs of running this event have gone absolutely mad and income from ticketing has just not kept up with the increasing costs.

“From Assembly’s point of view, since pre-Covid times our bought-in costs have gone up between 40 and 50 per cent, staffing costs have probably gone up between 15 and 20 per cent, and accommodation costs have gone up something like 300 per cent, but our ticketing income has only gone up around 15 per cent.

“When you put that picture together, we’re in a really difficult landscape. But the most important thing is that we keep the lifeblood of the festival going – the companies that come here to perform."

Ms Koren said: “It's no secret that people across the Fringe are facing rising costs, especially with the current cost of living crisis.

"As a local venue operator, there's new challenges for us every single year, across every aspect of the business. From staff or performers who can't afford to pay inflated rent prices, suppliers who have to raise costs to meet the needs of their business, or Edinburgh locals who are being priced out of their own city, it's an altogether unsustainable format and means we lose a huge potential pool of talent.

"We want to keep shows as affordable as possible whilst also making sure it's worthwhile for artists to actually come and perform, but set-up and running costs are rising more and more out of control. It's an extremely challenging cycle for everybody involved with the Fringe to be in.

"We want as many people as possible to experience the world's biggest arts festival right on our doorstep, but as they stand things are bleak across the board."

Summerhall chief executive Sam Gough said: “The increase in costs we have when building and staffing a venue are far greater than what we can increase ticket prices by, in order to cover our costs, which makes it increasingly more difficult to make budgets work.

"Coupled with less money in people’s pockets, audiences are becoming more selective, which in turn makes everything harder.

“We’ve launched several initiatives over the last two years to help and support the artists to lessen the financial burden on participating in the Fringe. The cost for the companies is significant and whilst participating in the fringe is an investment in their careers, so it is important we support and give as many opportunities to them as we can.”

Greenside director Darren Neale said: “Without a doubt, the biggest challenge facing us venue operators and performers is accommodation.

"The cost has skyrocketed, with the price of a four-bedroom flat increasing astronomically compared to pre-pandemic levels.

"The situation feels unsustainable. Without affordable places for acts to stay, the festival risks losing its lifeblood.”

Mr Alderson called for local businesses to do more to support the venues and companies at the heart of the Fringe.

He added: “If you add up the costs for every single member of a cast and look at the cost of tickets, the Fringe is just not sustainable.

"It is Edinburgh’s festival and we want Edinburgh to get behind the Fringe and fall in love with it all over again."