The News workshop - 25th to 28th August

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has, for the past 68 years run throughout the month of August. This week, the long running tradition is in jeopardy of major change. Tommy Sheppard, founder of the Stand Comedy Club and East Edinburgh MP has proposed that the largest arts festival in the world should be pushed forward to coincide with the Scottish school holidays. Although this is only a two-week change in schedule, it could potentially have detrimental affects on local business.

 

Currently the Fringe runs throughout the whole of August, this brings in an extra two weeks trade for the small business owners of Scotland’s capital. If the dates were brought forward to match the unconventional Scottish school holiday times, the international custom of festival-goers would not bring the extra profit that so many business owners in Edinburgh rely on.

 

However, for other residents and the acts of Edinburgh this move could mean a much more convenient period of festivity. There are 195 children’s performances at this year’s Fringe all of which depend on the ticket sales from local families. Sean Murphy, a children’s entertainer at the festival admits ‘the first couple of weeks of the festival are amazing, jam-packed with kids and then it drops off’. Furthermore, the parents of school children are unable to enjoy the variety of shows the capital has to offer in the last week of August, arguably separating the locals from the largest arts festival in the world.

 

If this change goes ahead, it will be the end of the Fringe as we know it and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the residents and acts of the capital’s biggest event.