A new crowdfunding platform, designed to help Fringe artists and venues raise vital funds in the absence of a physical festival in 2020, has raised over £140,000 in just over a week.
At time of writing, FringeMakers has raised £141,678 across 57 wildly diverse artist and venue projects. 3,072 supporters who have contributed so far – each donating an average of nearly £44 each. The FringeMakers platform was developed by Crowdfunder in partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. More details can be found at https://crowdfund.edfringe.com/.
The Fringe Society would also like to sincerely thank AJ Bell who, in addition to supporting our weekly AJ Bell Fringe on Friday fundraising shows, have made a generous contribution to the central artist and venue recovery fund.
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “We've been genuinely humbled by the generosity of Fringe fans over the past week or so, particularly in times of real financial difficulty for many people.
“Thousands of the artists, venues and creatives that make the Fringe happen each and every year are facing an uncertain future, unsure of where their next performance or paycheck is coming from. FringeMakers is designed to tackle this head on, raising vital funds for artist and venue projects large and small. Our weekly AJ Bell Fringe on Friday live shows offer another way for Fringe fans to support, with every penny of the £9 ticket price going to Fringe artists and venues."
How it works
Through the FringeMakers platform, venues and artists are able to register as part of the campaign for free and begin raising vital funds for their own cause. Participants can offer rewards for donation, such as access to their own livestreamed shows, custom merchandise, exclusive content and much more.
Success stories so far
The biggest amount raised by an artist or venue so far is an incredible £42,641 – massive congratulations to Pleasance for their efforts. With 280 shows cancelled and over 1,000 performers affected, these funds will help ensure the Pleasance returns in 2021.
Thanks to the generous contributions made by Fringe audiences, venues like Summerhall have been able to raise nearly £30,000 towards keeping their doors open for another year (with 25% of that total pledged to fund bursaries for Fringe artists).
Pianodrome has so far raised nearly £6,000 towards finding a permanent home for their unique, upcycled amphitheatre. And not-for-profit venue the Quaker Meeting House has raised just shy of £350 to help it continue supporting charities and providing a performance space for community-focused companies.
Assembly has raised over £9,000 so far and are crowdfunding to help support their band of highly skilled freelance creators whose livelihoods have been devastated by the events of 2020.
Rewards
Many FringeMakers projects offer unique rewards you can’t get anywhere else, including:
- A personal recorded thank-you message from Johnny Vegas courtesy of Just the Tonic (still available for £300).
- 'Orange pool noodles consecrated with Gordon’s gin by King Billy himself', according to sketch group Faces of Glasgow, still available for £20 a pop
- Monkey Barrel Comedy is offering a portrait of you in their house style, created by resident artist Shiel Yule, for £1,000
- Artist Walter Michael DeForest of the show ‘Van Gogh Find Yourself’ will send you your portrait on paper for £100
- Philip Simon (whose major claim to fame is voicing Daddy Pig in the Peppa Pig UK tour) is offering personalised jokes (£7), limericks (£10) and even a message to your kids from Mr Pig himself (£15)
- Magician Ava Beaux is offering handmade masks (£15), scrunchies (£15), bunting (£20) and magician starter kits (£35 for kids, £45 for adults).
Several artists also offering one-to-one Zoom tuition in their chosen discipline, including TuFlamenco, Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company and magician Gareth White.
The campaign continues
The FringeMakers campaign is scheduled to run throughout August, giving artists and venues the opportunity to raise more funds and plan their survival until Fringe 2021.
In addition to working with Crowdfunder to provide the FringeMakers platform free of charge, we also give each user the chance to sell tickets to our weekly AJ Bell Fringe on Friday show – keep an eye out for the latest line-up announcement every Wednesday.
To buy tickets to AJ Bell Fringe on Friday, and explore the other rewards on offer, visit https://www.edfringe.com/experience/2020/fringe-on-friday.
