News > Fringe facing overhaul after 2008 ticket office fiasco
Fringe facing overhaul after 2008 ticket office fiasco
By Craig Brown
Published: 11/8/2009
Festival goers queue at the Fringe ticket office on High Street
A MAJOR consultation exercise is to be launched by Edinburgh's Fringe Society in the wake of last year's box office fiasco.
Fears have been raised that the organisation can no longer handle the scale of the event, which features 35,000 performances this year.
Last year's box office problems were blamed as one of the root causes of a 10 per cent slump in ticket sales – the first drop in eight years. An independent report into the meltdown highlighted "fundamental flaws" in the way it was run.
Thousands of people were left without tickets and many performers claimed their shows were undersold. The consultation will begin in September when this year's Fringe ends.
Fringe spokesman Neil Mackinnon said that the board of trustees felt it was a time for a "renewal of the Fringe Society's constitution" and that the key issue was that many of those with a serious interest in how it was run – acts, venues, audiences and media – were not part of the society itself.
He said: "Last year's box office problem was part of the learning experience and brought us to where we are today, but I think that all that did was highlight it was the right time for a renewal process.
"The consultation process will be about asking how we can best fulfil the remit of the Fringe Society."
The process will begin next month with a written questionnaire sent out to interested parties, followed up by face-to-face meetings with "key stakeholders".
In early 2010 there will be an opening meeting to discuss the findings of the consultation to that date, which will lead to a final set of proposed changes to the constitution that will go before a general meeting next summer.
The new structure is expected to be in place in time for next year's Festival. The Fringe has this year used the box office system that effectively bailed out the festival last summer. The Via system had already been put into use by the four biggest venues on the Fringe, allowing them to "cross-sell" tickets.
Pip Utton, vice-chairwoman of the society, said yesterday: "The current constitution of the Fringe Society was written in 1969. Since then the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has changed just as dramatically as most aspects of society. The world's largest arts festival needs a constitution which is fit for purpose."
She added: "The consultation process which we have announced today is more extensive than anything ever undertaken before and almost certainly unique in its scale and ambition for any arts event around the world."
William Burdett-Coutts, artistic director of the Assembly Rooms, one of the Fringe Festivals' main venues, welcomed the move.
"I'm delighted that we have a ticketing system that now works," he said. "We were always of the opinion that we should have been joined up on that system from the first.
"I think consultation is probably a good thing because it was a major issue for the festival last year and it's important that we talk about it, learn from the mistakes and move forward. All of us are interested in making the festival work better.
