Edinburgh Festival Fringe to 'refocus' marketing in response to concerns over its annual growth

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has pledged to overhaul how the event is promoted in the wake of concerns over the impact of its audience expanding every year.

Organisers have admitted they need to be more sensitive overtourism pressures and have an “important part to play” in helping to manage the city during peak periods.

It has also vowed to strike a better balance between celebrating the Fringe’s status as “the world’s greatest celebration of the arts” and making more of its “local roots.”

The Fringe has also pledged to respond to the climate crisis by focusing on how to make the event more sustainable while ensuring its “international outlook” remains intact.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe now attracts an audience of more than three million to shows.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, which oversees the staging of the 73-year-old festival, said it had made a “conscious decision” to refocus its marketing activities towards its “existing” audiences..

The change in direction was announced at the launch of the annual review of the Fringe, which notched up an audience of more than three million for the first time in 2019.

Edinburgh was named as one of the world’s overtourism hotspots last summer, alongside Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rome and Venice.

An official report for the tourism industry in Edinburgh last year called for the growth of its festivals and events to be “carefully managed” in future to reduce the risk of the city reaching a “tipping point” for the way taxpayers feel about visitors.

Earlier this month, Festivals Edinburgh, the umbrella body which leads efforts to promote the city’s major events around the world, insisted that “growth for growth’s sake” was not on its agenda.

Speaking at the annual review launch, the Fringe Society's deputy chief executive, Lyndsey Jackson said: "One of our priorities as a Society is to ensure that participants, audiences, visitors and residents have a positive experience of the Fringe.

"We’re listening carefully to the sustainable tourism debate ongoing in Edinburgh, and whilst we are delighted to welcome the seven per cent of our audiences that come from overseas, we also appreciate we have an important part to play in helping manage the city during its busier periods.

"With that in mind, we have made a conscious effort to refocus our marketing activities, to encourage those that are here already to see more work

“We want to nurture and deepen engagement with the Fringe, whilst continuing to reach out a hand of friendship to the world."

An official report for the tourism industry in Edinburgh last year called for the growth of its festivals and events to be “carefully managed” in future to reduce the risk of the city reaching a “tipping point” for the way taxpayers feel about visitors.

Earlier this month, Festivals Edinburgh, the umbrella body which leads efforts to promote the city’s major events around the world, insisted that “growth for growth’s sake” was not on its agenda.

Director Julia Amour said the new focus would be on ensuring that Edinburgh was “a place of great cultural discoveries and experiences from home and abroad.”

Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Fringe Society, said: "We’re so proud to be the Fringe that calls Edinburgh home, and I’m delighted that the people of the city continue to hold the spirit of the Fringe in their hearts.

"It’s encouraging that 740 shows from Edinburgh appeared on stage in 2019 and a record 850,000 tickets were issued to the city's residents.

“The Fringe is for everyone, and we’re committed to finding a balance between deepening our local roots and celebrating our position as the greatest celebration of arts and culture on the planet.

"We want to deepen existing audiences’ engagement with the festival while being sensitive to the pressures Edinburgh faces as a popular tourist destination – what we refer to as ‘one more show, not two more feet’.