Looking into it via numbers, was the Edinburgh Fringe very successful this year?
It’s always a bit of a rush during the Edinburgh Fringe to keep track of what’s going on and whether it’s all worth it for everyone. Citizens of Edinburgh are ‘traumatised’ according to the councillor in charge of culture, who is against giving it more money from the tourist tax. Which is a bit dramatic, but there we are, there’s many in Edinburgh who don’t consider it great value for money. Then there’s the performers who say that it’s increasingly a rigged game where it is getting harder to cut through to an audience who is awash in over 4200 different shows. There’s also competition from the Royal Military Tattoo and now there’s the Edinburgh Summer Sessions, which this year took all the energy out of the final week as people left the city centre to go hang out by the park and ride.
So was the Fringe worth it for us as performers? Let’s explore together.
Background from another performer
A performer named Sam Bain has provided a helpful round up of the Fringe numbers this year and compared it to previous.
The numbers she’s provided tell their own story. The Fringe got bigger and the number of tickets did go up, but shows got a smaller slice of the pie. The average tickets per performance was 45.8 in 2026 but in 2019 it was 50.5. This is quite substantial and it would explain why more acts reported empty rooms in the final week than previously.
International Issues
Instability is definitely part of the story. Last years oil prices in August were in the $60s and this years in the $80s. The war in Iran, is it a war or a special military operation?, has caused the return of inflation and that can’t help anyone travelling internationally. From my own experience, I’ve had multiple families email me to say they need to cancel bookings due to airlines charging extra for fuel.
This has a knock on effect which hits prices and jobs worldwide. Going to the Fringe and contributing to its success is not a priority when face with existential issues like money. It is very much a luxury for most to attend.
Did the tourist tax affect anything?
Probably not, I’ve not heard a tiny percentage charge added to rooms hitting anyone in a way that makes them less keen. I’d like it rolled out to cruise ships.
Was the Edinburgh Street Historians Fringe run successful?
Undoubtedly. I have 20 such photos like above, generally with group sizes of 8 at its lowest to 28 at its peak. It was great to get the message out to more people that Edinburgh’s history can be fun and funny, interesting, bloody, disgusting, and cool.
One thing is that we offered two tours, the Old Town one and the LGBTQ one, and I figured the LGBTQ would be more successful than it was. After all, it’s a pretty unique thing to have a tour like this on a Pay What You Think It’s Worth model, but I suppose there were other things for people to do.
About a third of the events we put on could be classed as sold out. So there’s the standard to set next year.
What’s next for the Edinburgh Fringe and can it top its success?
Since the pandemic, the Fringe has not been able to attain the same heights. Going back to Sam’s numbers from earlier, the highest selling year for tickets remains 2019. This isn’t great from the perspective that virtually every other statistic I can think of recovered within a couple of years of the pandemic. We will have to see if it can ever attain such heights again.
What I can say is that for many of us who were in it, it was a heap of fun and it’s helped create something new. At the Street Historians, we saw hundreds of guests we otherwise probably would not have. Also, we were singing a lot.
The writer of this piece will not miss the number of street performers using whips this year which was exceptionally nippy.
Leave a Reply