EDINBURGH Festival Fringe organisers yesterday promised that a new box-office system would not let down festival-goers, as they unveiled details of a record-breaking 2009 event.
The programme for the world's largest arts festival was unveiled with a record 2,098 shows in 265 venues, after a troubled 2008 when the event's reputation and revenues were rocked by ticketing breakdowns.
"I am confident it's robust; I am confid
ent it's been tested," said chief executive Kath Mainland of the new Red61 system. Officially in the job for only two weeks, she said the box-office system had been her "main focus" since her appointment in February.
Many highlights of the Fringe line-up have emerged in recent weeks, but the line-up was on show in all its rich variety yesterday, with 34,265 performances by artists from 60 countries.
There are just ten more shows than last year's tally of 2088. A quarter, however, are from Scotland – 500 of them, a surge from last year's 336.
The jump came in the Scottish Government's Year of Homecoming and with the "Made in Scotland" strand of shows supported by its Festivals Expo Fund. The figures suggest an increase in Scottish content has covered a drop in overseas and UK productions.
Among top names, television and stage star Denise van Outen will make her Fringe debut with a one-woman musical comedy show.
This year sees the first internet "venue", with the show Soul Photography presented through an online video streaming format. The Traverse Theatre is introducing its Theatre for Breakfast strand, with new short works by top playwrights.
Ms Mainland, the former administrative director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, showed a confident handling of her first major public appearance yesterday.
She warned that the Fringe, which received a £250,000 bail-out last year as it ran into debt, would have to go back to public funders next winter to cover an expected hole in cash-flows.
"We are carrying the financial position that came out of last year, but this year on its own is looking good," she said. So far, the International Festival, the Science Festival and the Borders Book Festival were all reporting a good year.
The Red61 ticketing system was used in the closing weeks of last year's Fringe, and the new update had been used at the Brighton Fringe and for a run of shows staged in London by the Fringe venue, Underbelly.
"The scale of things like the Brighton Fringe is not the same as the Edinburgh Fringe, but the different bits that it has to do, the functionality, being on the internet, selling out different allocations, have tested," she said.
Ms Mainland was cautious about a "bed tax" plan to help to pay for the Fringe. She said her goal was to make it as "cheap and easy" for performers to come to Edinburgh as possible.
Edinburgh's festival tsar, Steve Cardownie, suggested yesterday that hotels, restaurants and shops should contribute to a "festival fund". It might help to mitigate losses for shows that travelled to Edinburgh from Africa, India, or the former Eastern Bloc, he suggested.
With the public purse under severe pressure and Edinburgh City Council seeking £92 million of savings, the private sector had to "step up to the plate", he said.
Broad line-upFRINGE shows this year range from staged witness accounts of the Mumbai terror attack in A Personal War to the global recession through the prism of the 1929 crash in Suckerville.
Favourites include Rent, Treasure Island, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Waiting for Godot in the St James Public Toilets and The Magic Flute in Rosslyn Chapel. In Foot-Washing for the Sole, Adrian Howell tenderly washes the feet of audience members.
Only one show mentions Barack Obama, as comedian Ava Vidal tries to apply his principles to everyday life. Comedy accounts for 35 per cent of shows – against 28 per cent for theatre. A host of big names booked include Stewart Lee, Jo Caulfield and Daniel Kitson.
High notesTALKING Heads frontman David Byrne plays Edinburgh for the first time in five years, with The Streets and The Stranglers also topping the rock music strand of the Fringe.
The Edge Festival, successor to T on the Fringe, celebrates its tenth year with a line-up that organisers said was as diverse as possible.
The mix of international and local acts runs from experimental electronica from Icelandic troupe Múm, to Scottish names like Calvin Harris, Malcolm Middleton, Young Fathers, Unicorn Kid, Broken Records and Frightened Rabbit.
There are several new venues this year, with the Playhouse hosting Byrne and punk pioneers The Stranglers playing the HMV Picture House.
