Below is an open letter from Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Shona McCarthy.

"As the curtain falls on the 2024 Festival Fringe, much is being discussed in the spaces,  rooms, cafes, and streets of Edinburgh, on the success of this year.  Today it was announced that 2.6 million tickets were issued during the 2024 Fringe, however there is no doubt that the current environment for artists across the UK is of great concern; and the fragility of the performing arts community is palpable. An outward veneer of success cannot mask the struggle for artists to emerge let alone thrive in the UK right now. While Fringe 2024 has been brilliant, and it is to be celebrated that artists, companies, venues, producers and promoters took huge financial risks and pieced it together and put on the show. However, the dominant message as we close this year’s festival is that there is no Fringe without art. There is no art without artists.

The cumulative effect of the relentless rise in the cost of everything, and an unhelpful policy environment facing the arts sector has resulted in widespread concern that is keenly felt by artists.  From the availability of affordable accommodation, blunt policy changes which have consequences for major events, to continuous public sector cuts; we need to ensure that the hard won and fragile success isn’t met with complacency by those who can influence change.  It is not enough to have old stories of how important Edinburgh’s festivals were in providing healing and connection after the Second World War. They are important now, contributing hugely to health, well-being, joy and job creation.

The Edinburgh Fringe vision is to give anyone a stage and everyone a seat. That is a commitment to inclusion, to freedom of expression and to being allowed to try and to fail. It is a vision that is increasingly easier to say than it is to do. I have worked in the arts across the UK for 35 years now, and in the last two decades there has been a journey away from elitism, monoculturalism and exclusion with inspiring developments in access to the arts for all, with still a long way to go. If the UK continues on an upward trajectory of cuts to arts education, and Scotland continues to decimate  investment in the sector, breaking  promises of support;  then we are on a direct course to job losses, exclusion and boring art that is only the privilege of those who can afford to be part of it, as performers or as audiences.

Here at the Fringe and across the UK, the pipeline of creative potential is under threat. Artistic risk and ambition is hamstrung by an operating context that squeezes out emerging artists that have made the Fringe globally renowned, unique and joyful.  How can the Edinburgh Fringe remain exemplary, exciting, experimental; the only place in the world to be every August?  As the most influential arts marketplace in the world, this year over 1,800 arts industry accredited with the Fringe Society, and came to Edinburgh to seek new work for onward touring and broadcast opportunities. Nearly 900 accredited media reviewed shows, interviewed artists and worked tirelessly to support the 3,746 shows that took place this year.

There is no future for the Fringe without art. There is no art without artists.  Artists and the venues who host them are at the heart of this event, and there would be no Fringe without them.  They take the risk of bringing work to the festival every year, and while the arts landscape is at a crossroads, we need to ensure that the Fringe, one of the greatest celebrations of arts and culture in the world, is protected for the future.  As we celebrate the hundreds of thousands of people who have been moved, delighted, awed, shocked and entertained by the stories artists present across Fringe stages, it feels that now, more than ever, we must not take artists for granted; we would do so at our peril."

Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

Read Beyond The Joke's Edinburgh Reviews here.

Fringe 2024 Statistics

The Fringe in numbers*

The 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe officially wraps up today, Monday 26 August 2024, having brought together artists, arts industry, media and audiences from over 65 countries.

• Over 2.6 million tickets were issued this year and 3746 shows registered.**
• 60 countries were represented on stage at this year’s Fringe, including 13 country showcases. 
• 1,800 accredited arts industry members – e.g. promoters, producers, festival and venue bookers – from 64 countries attended the festival to buy work and support artists beyond the Fringe. 
• Almost 900 media professionals from 27 countries accredited for this year’s festival, with the number of reviewers up 6% on 2023.
• 510 artists also attended the annual Meet the Media event, designed to support performers without professional PR support.
• Fringe Society ran 37 events as part of the Fringe Central programme, and had 48 external partners.
• More than 300 sensory resources were used by autistic children and adults, to help make their experience of the Fringe more enjoyable. 
• 34 local schools, charities and community groups took part in the Fringe Days Out scheme, which offers free Fringe vouchers and Lothian Bus tickets to people who wouldn’t normally get to experience the Fringe.   
• The EdFringe app has been downloaded over 124,000 times to date.
• 60% of Fringe shows were accessible to wheelchair users. 
• An estimated 900 schoolchildren attended the Fringe as part of our schools’ outreach work (accompanied by teachers).

* All stats correct as of 12:00 on 26 August 2024. 

** The total number of 2024 registered shows on tickets.edfringe.com includes both ‘split listings’ and cancelled shows.