There is no place I would rather be than Edinburgh in August - Steve Cardownie

Last week I devoted part of my column to highlighting The Free Fringe, writing that it operated a two-tier system, “Free and Unticketed” and “Pay What You Can,” making it eminently affordable for the audience.

Dancers from Cuban groups Los Datway, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Ballet Rakatan and Ballet Revolucion take part in the Havana Street Party flashmob in Bristo Square at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Monday (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA)

Now The Fringe has not wasted any time in setting out its stall and has shouted from the rooftops that their programme is full of “value for money” shows. And so it is!

The average ticket price for a Fringe show is £12 which is well below the price of a ticket for a Premier League game for instance. The Fringe Society also shone the spotlight on the discounts offered by some venues to Edinburgh residents and the “2 for 1” days which start next week.

The Fringe has registered more than 3,640 shows this year making it the second highest number of shows since its inception in 1947.

As a former Fringe performer, (well I did play a dead body for two or three shows – a non-speaking part obviously – in the play A Feast During the Plague by Alexander Pushkin, performed by Theatre on Podil from Kyiv).

It is heartening to see that the number of shows on offer indicates that it has fully recovered the ground that it lost during the Covid pandemic.

Fringe Society Chief Executive, Shona McCarthy, was quick to point out that “this festival works so hard to be accessible and affordable,” adding that “sometimes I think that it is not recognised”.

Major promoter Underbelly stated that their average ticket prices across all their shows this year is £13.31, 54 per cent of their shows have an average ticket price of £!2 and that they are giving away 30,000 EH postcode tickets along with the other venues that they are working with.

I was lucky in that I worked in The City Chambers for nigh on 30 years and every August I encountered the throng of performers and volunteers that congregated on the High Street performing and promoting their shows.

From musicians to magicians, from actors to acrobats, I never tired of the colourful multitude that greeted me every day of the festival.

Considering all the festivals that are taking place in Edinburgh just now, it is no wonder that the city enjoys the international reputation as the premier festival city in the world.

Looking at some of the statistics from last year’s Fringe makes for interesting reading. With 39 per cent of tickets being sold to Edinburgh residents it surely lays to rest the spurious argument that the festival is just for tourists. Out of the total number of 2.2 million tickets issued, 10 per cent were sold to international visitors. For those who are not persuaded of the cultural worth of the festivals maybe the financial benefits will force them to sit up and take notice with the estimated £1 billion boost for the Scottish economy.

So, I’ll be heading off to see some of the street performers (of which there were 3,284 last year) and soak up the atmosphere – before I soak up a few sherries at one of the many open air facilities that have sprung up around the city centre.

Edinburgh in August – there’s no place I’d rather be!