We’re waiting for Nicola to see if show can go on - Karen Koren

I have been going to the office four days a week in 2021 – I get so much more done when working at the office.

The last of our staff are still on furlough, so the office is quiet and only meand my daughter, Katy are there. Katy is in my bubble, thank goodness, I think I would have gone mad if she wasn’t.

It’s so difficult to work at home, there is always something there to distract me. Food, radio, tv, books, washing, tidying up and the jigsaw that’s been lying around for ages unfinished.

I’ve now put all my jigsaws away – not got time for such things at the moment. Too busy planning the future!

August seems far away at the moment, but it’s not and the business needs to look at what can be achieved this year. We’ve been waiting patiently to hear what Nichola’s roadmap out of lockdown is going to be. Will we be allowed to have live events in August. It seems that organisers of events in England have already announced that they are going ahead, Leeds and Reading Festival, Creamfields, Parklife and Latitude are all happening this summer. Transmit Festival in Glasgow is hoping to go ahead, but again we are waiting on Nichola to confirm that live events can happen. It does seem rather alarming that England can go ahead and Scotland may not be able to.

We are all desperate now to have live events back. The Military Tattoo are selling tickets to a reduced capacity – socially distanced seating. We could also do this in well ventilated rooms and in outdoor venues. We are looking into this and budgeting accordingly, it will not be financially viable, though if it breaks even it would be worth doing to not have a ghost town for a Fringe in August.

Edinburgh has the biggest Arts Festival in the world and we should not let this slip away. I for one am very proud of the work we have presented over the last 35 years and we will continue to bring excellent, innovative entertainment to Edinburgh in the future if we are allowed