Freestival
Freestival, one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s free festivals, has confirmed that it has secured a new major performance space for the forthcoming festival. Events will take place at the New Waverley Arches.
The venue will host up to 40 free shows on four stages every day during the Fringe in the arches underneath Jeffrey Street, which forms part of the New Waverley development currently being constructed in the city’s Old Town.
Update: Following the publication of this story Mark Davison has been offered a 9pm slot by Just The Tonic boss Darrell Martin, so he will be appearing in Edinburgh this summer after all. He will be at the Up The Road venue. There is no ticketing or entry fee, just the usual request for a donation at the end. "He's not charging me for the room but will take a percentage of my bucket. It's a good deal and I'm very happy (and relieved) to have accepted it," says Davison.
Today's meeting regarding the Cowgatehead issue is off. This has just been posted on Facebook by Freestival:
On Wednesday I emailed Peter Buckley Hill with some questions about the booking of the Cowgatehead venue at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. On Thursday I received a reply and I asked if I could publish his answers. He has agreed to this as long as the response was unedited. Here below is our exchange in full. My words are in italics, everything else is from PBH.
Free Fringe Founder Peter Buckley Hill has now posted the following on the Facebook Comedy Forum and the Chortle Forum. He is still maintaining that he and not Freestival has the rights to programme Cowgatehead this August and is offering those who are booked with Freestival the chance to apply for slots with Free Fringe by this Friday.
Update 25/5: Following our report earlier today that Freestival had issued a statement proposing a compromise solution, Peter Buckley Hill's Free Fringe has now replied with this, which may put that option in jeopardy. This response, from PBHFF venues coordinator Frank Galbraith, is as follows:
Alex Marion, one of then three main organisers of Freestival, has now issued the following statement regarding the issue of who is booking/programming Edinburgh Fringe shows at Cowgatehead...
I’ve been saying for a while that the Edinburgh Fringe has become too big, partly because of the explosion of free shows. And now someone seems to have have done something about it. I thought that would make me happy, but instead the circumstances have saddened me.
Following Peter Buckley Hill's bombshell on May 21, Freestival has now issued this statement in response:
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
