#fringe festival

[hopefullydreaming]

I actually think anyone who works retail/hospitality in edinburgh during festival season deserves quadruple financial compensation, free therapy, and a license to kill

#edinburgh #edinburgh festival #fringe festival #retail #like genuinely today alone I’ve had people treat me as if I don’t even exist as a human being #being actually SHOVED by tourists like what the actual fuck is wrong with you

[scotianostra]

Festival

#edinburgh #scottish #scotland #festival #fringe festival #Royal Mile #my pics

[clickysteve]

Edinburgh, 2023.

#Edinburgh #Fringe Festival #Edinburgh Fringe #Edinburgh Fringe Festival #2023 #street #street photography #Edinburgh street photography #Lumix GX9 #GX9 #Leica 15mm f1.7 #Leica lens #Leica #candid #street photographer #Edinburgh Street Photographer #scotland

[lifeisartinblackandwhite]

@lifeisartinblackandwhite

#https://lifeisartinblackandwhite.tumblr.com/ #photographers on tumblr #edinburgh #fringe festival

[heatherandthistles]

I love being out, I just hate how tired I get after it 😐

#scottish #scotland #blue eyes #full lips #aesthetic #biseuxal #scotland summer #edinburgh castle #edinburgh fringe #fringe festival #edinburgh fringe festival #edinbrugh #capital

[alexyquest]

hey mutuals who live in the Philly area, or anywhere in the northeast — I wrote a play and you can come see it 😳 showing 9/4, 9/6, and 9/9 at Fidget in Philly

produced by @strongbranchpro

#theater #sci fi #fringe festival #Sci fi theater #Sci fi comedy #new play

[lilmisslunan]

TIL: Kim's Convenience was originally a Toronto fringe fest show, idk how i didn't already know that honestly

#kim's convenience #theatre #fringe festival

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The fringe never stopped being an education for me. When I was starting to write hourlong shows of my own, I went to see Bridget Christie and realised everything I was doing was shit and needed to be overhauled. I have watched shows by contemporaries, such as my ex-flatmate turned sitcom superstar Rose Matafeo, the sketch masters Lazy Susan and the genius/serial award-loser James Acaster, that reminded me why I fell in love with comedy.

When I hosted Edinburgh Nights for the BBC in 2018 and 2019, I was even forced to watch things that weren’t comedy. I saw Rachael Young marry live music, dance and Afrofuturism in Nightclubbing, a show that paid homage to Grace Jones. I saw Pussy Riot and was fortunate enough to interview them, where I was informed that they hadn’t been smuggled out of Russia to perform at the festival, as reported in the press, but had travelled “by unicorn”.

When I wasn’t watching shows, I was performing; learning how to be a comedian, step by excruciating step. In 2010 and 2011, I performed in a sketch double act with Tom Neenan. We were called the Gentlemen of Leisure and the show was a parody of The Culture Show on BBC Two and was exactly as financially profitable as it sounds. But we learned a huge amount about joke-writing and the partnership ended up with Tom becoming my partner in crimes against comedy on various radio shows and The Mash Report.

Meanwhile, I was doing standup on the Free Fringe, where the audience members aren’t charged, but can offer a donation to the performers on leaving the venue. The aim is for the donation to be in cash, but we were often compensated in old playing cards, flyers for our own show and bits of string. Still, these were formative experiences, performing on 25 consecutive days, accelerating my development more than months of infrequent gigging on the open mic circuit in London possibly could.

[...]

At times, it can feel as though defending the fringe is morally indefensible, like eating meat or supporting Manchester United. Landlords have been encouraging students to stay in their flats in August, leading to a shortage of properties and driving up prices. The Fringe Society was forced to launch a drive to find Edinburgh residents who would be willing to rent properties to performers for less than £280 a person a week. Some performers are staying out of town in caravans or on campsites.

Meanwhile, the Fringe Society is facing criticism for scrapping its app, a valuable tool for performers to direct audiences to their shows, sell more tickets and hopefully mitigate some of those astronomical rents.

The fringe is supposed to be a place where performers can come to experiment and evolve. However, it is turning into a playground for those born wealthy – like Monaco, but with more people who went to clown school.

It has been heading this way for years – and I am not exactly an example to the contrary. I grew up middle class and went to a fancy university that subsidised my first two trips here. More significantly, when I started doing solo standup shows, my first three were paid for by a management company. At the time, the going rate for a solo show (including venue hire, accommodation and PR costs) was about £10,000. I was performing in venues that were so small that even if I had sold every single ticket I would still have lost money.

It would be disingenuous not to acknowledge my fortune. It would make me no better than the swines in our cultural and political life who are the children of wealth, but proudly proclaim that they “did it on their own, without any help”. It is our most pernicious myth, aside from the one that brussels sprouts taste nice if you fry them with bacon. Your dad bought you a flat and the thing that tastes good is bacon. Sprouts taste like small, hard farts.

This is to say nothing of the woeful underrepresentation of female acts, ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Organisations such as Fringe of Colour and Best in Class work hard to address this, but wholesale change is needed. No one seems to be able to put the finger on who is to blame. Landlords, venues, PRs, Edinburgh university and the Fringe Society blame each other, but in the end the bill is footed by performers.

It is no wonder that younger comedians are increasingly seeing the benefits of social media exposure to their careers; the startup costs required are minuscule in comparison to those of doing a show on the fringe. But allowing the fringe to slip slowly into obsolescence would be a shame. At its core, it offers performers a boot camp to hone their skills and a collision of different styles of performance.

Being a performer at the fringe can feel like being a character on a film set in Las Vegas, because the house always wins. And I mean one of the bleak Vegas films, not Ocean’s Eleven – there is no sign of Clooney or Pitt. The only time it resembles Ocean’s Eleven is when you hear some drama student attempt a truly disgraceful cockney accent that would make even Don Cheadle say: “Bleeding heck, guvnah.”

I still believe in the fringe. Perhaps that is inevitable, given my whole life is tied to it, like a pointless Forrest Gump. My birthday is in August, so I can measure my life through the festivals I have attended. My first years I was there, I spent almost every waking moment with Tom and Ed Gamble. In the past three years, I have been best man at their weddings. In 2010, I met a woman who was funny and charming, but whom I presumed disliked me intently. In October, we will have been in a relationship for 10 years. I cannot separate my own life from the fringe and the city of Edinburgh. It has given so much to me, professionally and personally.

But even I understand that it stands at a crossroads. It must find a way to recapture its egalitarian spirit to remain relevant. It is not enough for charitable organisations to fill in the gaps; systemic change is needed. I say this not out of malice, but simply because I strongly believe, to quote my own mother: “If you love something, you must be willing to relentlessly point out everything that is wrong with it,” a phrase she often says to and about me.

#excerpts #edinburgh fringe #fringe festival #british comedy #nish kumar #live comedy #wish I could have seen the Culture Show parody

[neptunehenriksen]

That's right - my first time at Adelaide Fringe since 2016 babey! I'm bringing Long Drive Together AND Being A Woman For Money to Adelaide Fringe in 2024! One week only, back-to-back for 7 days. Catch the Neptune Henriksen Double Feature. Tix on sale now!

BOTH SHOWS - ADL FRINGE WEBSITE

MY WEBSITE: LONG DRIVE TOGETHER // BEING A WOMAN FOR MONEY

#theatre #comedy #stand up #neptune henriksen #being a woman for money #long drive together #queer #nonbinary #transgender #adelaide fringe #adelaide #fringe festival

[theselkiesea]

#the alchemist #the voodoo rooms #Edinburgh #fringe festival #dark academia #tattoo #tattoo inspiration #interior design #dark #dark aesthetic #snake #arrow #my answers

[aquitainequeen]

Mischief Movie Night at the Fringe!!!

The film tonight? A horror/romance musical set aboard a cruise ship, with elements of film noir, experimental cinema and instructional video!

The title?

Anything Goes Overboard!!!

The best part was naturally the paragliding wedding turned murder!!!

SO MUCH FUN

#Mischief movie night #Mischief theatre #Henry lewis #Henry shields #Jonathan sayer #Charlie russell #Harry kershaw #Dave hearn #fringe festival #edinburgh fringe

[awaitingarsooz]

This Barbie is headed to Edinburgh!

#sooz kempner #barbie #edinburgh fringe #fringe festival #mystery on the rocks #queenpod #trans rights #uk politics #lgbtqia+ #the + is for cabaret acts

[coochiequeens]

A performance venue that received "substantial amounts of public money during Covid" is peace spring a woman because TQ+ activists don’t want to hear from a Lesbian with gender critical views.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry has told BBC Scotland she has been cancelled by an Edinburgh venue for "being a lesbian with gender-critical views".

She was due to appear at The Stand during the Fringe Festival in August. 

The venue has cancelled the event after staff said they were not comfortable with her views on transgender issues.

The Edinburgh South MP is a critic of Scotland's Gender Recognition Reform plans, which make it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex.

Ms Cherry told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: "I would hope The Stand would see sense here. Staff shouldn't be framing editorial and artistic policy.

"I'm being cancelled and no-platformed because I'm a lesbian, who holds gender-critical views that somebody's sex is immutable.

"I've made those views clear over a number of years. I have never said that trans people should not have equal rights.”

The show was part of an In Conversation With series of events with interview guests including film director Ken Loach, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

Ms Cherry said she was planning to talk about her career in politics and the independence movement, as well as her feminist views.

She added: "Because a small number of people don't like my feminist and lesbian activism, I'm being prevented from talking about all of those things in my home city where I'm an elected politician. 

"I think it says something's gone very wrong in Scotland's civic space.

"Small groups of activists are now dictating who can speak and what can be discussed."

The Stand - which was co-founded by SNP MP Tommy Sheppard - said it did not endorse the views of any participant in the In Conversation With series, which is organised by independent producer Fair Pley. 

In a statement The Stand said: "Following extensive discussions with our staff it has become clear that a number of key operational staff, including venue management and box office personnel, are unwilling to work on this event.

"We will ensure that their views are respected. We will not compel our staff to work on this event and so have concluded that the event is unable to proceed on a properly staffed, safe and legally compliant basis."

Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton said the Stand had received "substantial amounts of public money during Covid" and many people would be "dismayed" by the stance it had taken. 

She added: "Whatever views people have on this sensitive issue, it cannot be acceptable to shut down free speech."

Last week, a screening of the Adult Human Female documentary was cancelled for a second time by the University of Edinburgh on safety grounds after protests by trans rights protestors. 

The film is billed as an "explainer about the issues, how far things have already changed for the worse for women and how difficult it has been to be heard, to be listened to", with its producers saying that accusations that it is transphobic are "designed to shut down debate".

Some university staff and student groups said the documentary contained content that was "a clear attack on trans people's identities".

First Minister Humza Yousaf has called on the university to defend freedom of speech and to allow robust debate and discussion.

He added: "I see that as no conflict with the other stance that I'm very proud of, which is supporting trans rights. That is something that I am unequivocal about.

"But we should ensure that our universities - and society more generally - are a place where we can have that robust exchange of ideas."

Mr Yousaf has launched a legal challenge to the UK government's block on controversial gender self-identification reforms that were passed by the Scottish Parliament in December. 

Ms Cherry was among the senior SNP politicians who opposed the legislation, which aims to make it easier for people to change their legal sex and lowers the age at which they can do so from 18 to 16. 

Meanwhile, Ms Cherry also told BBC Scotland she hoped the SNP would get its "finances and governance in order" amid a police investigation and the resignation of the party's auditors.

Ms Cherry, who resigned from the SNP's national executive committee in June 2021, said: "I was one of a number of members elected on a manifesto to deliver better transparency and scrutiny over the party's finances and governance.

"I'm sad to say we failed to do that, and it wasn't for the want of trying.

"I just regret it's come to this. I would like those who stood in the way of reform back in 2020-21 to reflect on what they've done."

Ms Cherry also said the party had not done "the necessary groundwork" on economic issues under former first minister Nicola Sturgeon to win over opponents of Scottish independence.

She added: "I've always argued that the way to win a referendum was to persuade people who voted no in 2014 of the merits of our case. 

"The SNP needs to discuss both how we convince people to the cause of independence and also how we actually win our independence. 

"We need to put the sovereignty of the Scottish people back to the front and centre of our debate." 

#UK #Scotland #SNP MP Joanna Cherry #Deplatforming a woman #The Stand Comedy Club #fringe Festival #Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform #Drop the T

[clickysteve]

Edinburgh, 2023.

#Edinburgh #Fringe Festival #Edinburgh Fringe #Edinburgh Fringe Festival #2023 #street #street photography #Edinburgh street photography #Lumix GX9 #GX9 #Leica 15mm f1.7 #Leica lens #Leica #candid #street photographer #Edinburgh Street Photographer #scotland

[lordmomohismomoness]

ATTENTION anyone who likes pride and prejudice, comedy, catchy songs, and supporting local theater groups!

I have just seen my favorite adaptation on pride and prejudice ever. The local theater group did Prejudice and Pride: a Folk Musical and it was AMAZING!

The show is a genderswapped P&P that takes place in East Tennessee and blends the themes of the novel with relevance to today. If you want to get a ticket to the recording of the show, you can go here:

Some of my favorite lines include:

"Butter my ass and call me a biscuit"

"I now pronounce you, under arrest"

And everything about the songs "Heaven Sent" (aka the thirsty reverend song) and "Bandits in Love"

The virtual show costs $20 and is worth every penny. Plus it all goes toward local artists.

If you are like me and folk music is not your preferred genre, you can check out the soundtrack on spotify here:

It won't be the same without the context of the show, but I don't like folk music and nearly all of these songs have been stuck in my head for a week now, and I ain't mad about it.

So please, lovers of zutara, dramoine, pride and prejudice, and literally any enemies to lovers ship: go support this wonderful show because it deserves so much love

Side note: if you are in Scotland, they are currently performing this show in August at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest, so go see it if you have a chance!

#prejudice and pride folk musical #pride and prejudice #folk music #theater #zutara #reylo #dramoine #fandom #genderswap #modernization #jane austen #if just one person watches it i will be so happy to share the joy of this show #fringe festival #edinburgh #Spotify

[rndyounghowze]

#theatre #theatre review #musical theatre #fringe festival #professional theatre #theatre awards #theatre critic #theaters