Comedy gang of four in cultural revolution

THE big four venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are to team up to promote their own separate comedy event this August, The Scotsman has learned.

The new Edinburgh Comedy Festival will be jointly programmed by the Assembly, Pleasance, Underbelly and Gilded Balloon venues and will have its own brochure.

Fringe insiders say the move is the most significant "breakaway" in the history of the world's biggest arts festival.

Although all the shows in the new festival will still be featured in the Fringe programme and tickets for them will be available through the Fringe box office, sources say this year's move is being planned as a "precursor".

The four venues describe the joint programme and the creation of the new comedy festival as "marketing tools". However, it is understood they hope to land a string of big-name sponsors.

The Scotsman understands the moves have been bitterly opposed by the Fringe organisation, which fears the venues could pull out of the official programme and the Fringe box office as early as next year.

One source said: "There's no doubt that's what these venues have got in mind. These are the first steps. Having a joint programme is one thing, but promoting your shows as the Edinburgh Comedy Festival is something else completely. It's unfair on audiences and unfair on other venues."

One leading Fringe figure, who asked not to be named, said: "This is about setting up a festival within a festival and is potentially very divisive. Anybody who genuinely cares about comedy doesn't try and own it."

Jon Morgan, director of the Fringe, said: "The Edinburgh Comedy Festival is part of the broad mix of comedy, theatre, dance, musical theatre and music at the Fringe. I would encourage audiences to experience the incredible range of work across the whole Fringe."

The Pleasance director, Anthony Alderson, said the group was not yet in a position to announce its plans.

Tommy Sheppard, director of the Stand Comedy Club, said he had been approached by the group but declined to get involved. "It's very much a breakaway thing," he said. "It's a great shame they are taking such a divisive attitude. I know they're trying to form a cartel to lever more sponsorship."

He said he understood the venues were seeking £650,000 for a title sponsor.

A spokesman for C Venues, a leading group of venues, said: "We're aware the four biggest venues are planning a joint programme, but we had no idea they were talking about promoting a new comedy festival.

"We're in favour of any initiative that increases the advertising and promotion of events on the Fringe, but only on condition it is spread across all genres, and not just one art form."

The Fringe charges for each entry in the programme and takes a cut of all tickets it sells through its box office. This year's "breakaway" is expected to provide the first serious challenge for new Fringe director Jon Morgan, who only took on the job last June.

A spokesman for the four venues said an announcement would be made in the next couple of days.

A FEW FRINGE BENEFITS

THE Festival Fringe was set up in 1947, the year the Edinburgh International Festival was launched.

Six Scottish companies and two from England turned up in the city uninvited and decided to fend for themselves.

Last year's event saw more than 1.6 million tickets sold, generating over £10 million at the box office, smashing all previous Fringe records.

In comparison, the 1997 Fringe saw 776,000 tickets sold.

The Fringe organisation itself has just 13 full-time staff, but during the three-week extravaganza every August this jumps to around 120.

The 2007 Fringe featured 31,000 performances of 2,050 shows in 250 venues

An estimated 18,626 performers were on stage.

Theatre makes up about 31 per cent of the programme, with comedy roughly the same. Music is the next largest element, with 17 per cent.

The Assembly Rooms, the Gilded Balloon and the Pleasance have long been the three biggest venues on the Fringe, although the Underbelly has emerged on the scene in the last five years. Between them these four venues account for just under 50 per cent of all tickets.

Among the big-name comedians to cut their teeth on the Fringe have been Al Murray, Lee Evans, Dylan Moran, Steve Coogan and Frank Skinner.