Fringe chiefs extend lease for £1 a year

The organisation that manages Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival is to get an extension to its lease – with the city council only charging it a peppercorn rent of £1 a year.

The Festival Fringe Society leases space from the council on the Royal Mile, which it uses as a shop and offices.

A ten-year lease was granted in 1987 at the nominal rate of £1 a year and that has been extended annually since 1997.The Fringe has now requested that the lease is renewed until 2023/24, at £1 a year.

A joint council report by director of city development Dave Anderson and acting director of corporate services David Jack said: “The Edinburgh Festivals Impact Study 2010 found that the Fringe Festival generated almost £142 million for the Edinburgh economy.

“It supported over 3000 full-time equivalent jobs, issued 1.9 million tickets for shows, drew over 900,000 visitors to free street events, accounted for 45 per cent of visitors from outside Scotland who stayed in Edinburgh during the 2010 summer festivals period and had a strong beneficial impact on community cohesion.”