Mo Money Mo Problems

A long, long time ago, in the days when all marriages were happy, kids respected their elders, and students walked to school uphill both ways, Fringe tickets were dirt cheap. One could see any show for less than 3 quid; even with a schedule of 6 shows in one day, festival goers would still have enough money left over for some color-me-bland fish ’n’ chips. But with women’s rights, the advent of hip-hop, and decreasing family values… things have changed (and not for the better, please reference the failed back-to-the-kitchen movement).

Ticket prices have been climbing steadily for the past couple of years, and average prices now hover around £8-£10 pounds, with many shows even soaring to the £15 pound range. The days of reasonable affordability, theater “sampling,” and fringe overdose, seems to have been replaced with conservative penny pinching selectivity. Couple that with the decreasing value of the American dollar (currently at 2.183 dollars/pound), and many theater lovers have been forced to sell their kidneys and/or children on E-bay (the latter being a nicer way of saying “mini-kidneys”).

There are some rebels who operate on the outdated flower-child notion of “free.” Peter Buckley Hill’s Free Fringe and the competing Laughing Horse Free Festival, both offer tens of dozens of shows at no charge (the very definition of “free”) in 10 different venues across the city. Last year the two promoters had joined forces, but this year split due to highly controversial (and well publicized) acrimony. See? Divorce, everyone’s doing it.

The problem is a complex multilayered little onion which is the only ingredient used to cook up shows like “Che Guevara on the Fringe” (out of oppression comes art) and their routine of reminiscing, forecasting and enthusiastically offering a very modest proposal like, say, a violent revolution?

The problems, debated vigorously in pubs across the city, are as follows:

Too big

The festival offers an absurd amount of shows (2,050) and has now outgrown its capacity to fill seats. The theatergoing population is thinned out to below breaking-even numbers by the sheer amount of options.

Too expensive

Tickets are dear enough to be “out-of-reach” for many theatergoers, but often times, it’s not the performers who are pocketing the money. Venues, with their own profit margin agenda, are charging up front booking fees which desperate companies are trying to recoup in ticket prices. No one is sure who is duping whom, and every bushy tailed amateur is told the fabled fairytale of how Edinburgh is paved with five-star reviews made out of gold…Scotland’s “capital” is the place to make it.

Too commercial

The Smirnoff sponsored Underbelly is one example of the Evil Empire (note how they try to legitimize their street-cred by insisting that their walls are "dilapidated" and "crumbling") . It has expanded from 2000 to three venues, 140 shows, and their ‘McFringe’ approach to making money (::gasp::) is problematic for smaller venues that are, in the cliché story of corner mom ‘n’ pop shops, slowly pushed out of business. The other type of commercialization involves the types of show that the Fringe is hosting. With big-name draws like Ricky Gervais charging £37.50 for his show at the thousand-seat Castle, first-time theater companies and performers are marginalized out of the very festival that had promised to give them a chance.