The Edinburgh Fringe Show 2024 Epilogue – Some Final Thoughts On The Fringe

It's Monday the 26th of August and it's time to say goodbye to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Yes, good afternoon, good morning, good evening.

The sun is getting ready to set on Edinburgh.

It does that every 24 hours, but it's only once a year that the sun sets on the Fringe.

It's been great to have your company over the last month as I've taken the chance to speak to many people around the Fringe,

give you a little flavour of what's been happening across the capital,

the capital city here in Edinburgh, and yep, I'm going to be back next year, the Fringe will be back next year, all of that.

There's no interview, this is, as we said last week, this is going to be the epilogue.

The sort of, let's just have a little sit down, let's just have a little think about what's happened,

one little last flurry, and then we will just move into the archives,

move into what should we do over the next 11 months as we get ready to come back again.

And here's a thought for you, just quite a few thoughts.

But let's start off with one that I think is the most important to keep in mind.

For some people, this was their first Fringe.

It might have been the first time that they were flyering or in an audience, but primarily performing.

They're going to look back on this Fringe as the absolute best Fringe ever.

No Fringe in their future will ever be as good, as magical, or as perfect as this one.

This is it. For them, it will never be.

It will never be as good as this.

Reminder about that, because that frame of reference, what's good?

What's the problems? Where did it go wrong?

It changes for every single person.

I'm going to have a tip of the hat here to Kev Sutherland,

who wasn't playing the Fringe in the programme,

but the Scottish Los Angeles Salt Puppet Theatre did do a couple of cameos

and popped up for one or two nights.

And he found these quotes about the Fringe and coverage of the Fringe in the media.

Writing in the Evening News, playwright Robert Kemp.

Round the Fringe of the official festival drama,

there seems to be more private enterprise than before.

Also from the Evening News, the festival's first widely publicised financial crisis,

as the city fathers suggested there should only be a festival every three years

because the city cannot support it.

Or there was a talk given to the Fringe Club by Robert John Calder.

There are now two Fringes, professional and amateur,

suggesting that the Fringe has...

taken over drama from the official festival.

That first quote was from 1948,

the second from 1958,

and the third from 1968.

I've lifted these because the Fringe has always faced issues,

and there always seem to be echoes and mirrors of issues past.

And the Fringe has always found an answer as a collective group.

Bringing it up to date, the 21st Century Fringe has many issues.

And they are issues that have to be addressed anew each year.

Yet the Fringe survives.

Yes, it changes form, but it always seeks to offer the same function.

A place where anyone can come, anyone can perform, and anyone can be found.

But it takes a community,

and what is the absolute perfect for one part of the Fringe community

may not be the same as another.

The wide differences between shows,

styles, genres, venues, investment, sponsorships,

backers, audience, media appreciation,

all of that means that for the Fringe to continue,

cooperation needs to be at the top of everyone's list.

And everybody needs to realise that it's going to be a compromise for everyone.

One size will not fit all to help the Fringe.

And that's not just for the performers and the venue operators around Edinburgh.

That's the media who need to engage more and not simply chuck up tired tropes

that could be written at any time since the Fringe started.

Submit it and go, there we go, Fringe in crisis.

It's the audience who need to be willing to engage and explore

to find more than, I saw that person on the telly,

that's the one show I'm going to see this year.

We need to make it easier for them and to make sure

that the risk that they want to take is worth it,

along with the risks at the artists, the venues and everything.

You see, all the issues join up.

It's the politicians in Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government

who need to realise the fragile nature of the gift

that the arts brings them every year

and how it needs nurtured and how it needs thought.

And again, there isn't going to be one size of an answer

that they can just go, bonk, there, done, box ticked.

It needs all that.

It's a year round work.

And again, I'll come back to cooperation.

There are many, many parts of the Fringe.

So it's even the Fringe Society realising, not just internally,

but illustrating that they know that they're not the stewards of the Fringe.

They're one of many stewards of the Fringe.

The Fringe is a community.

And if I were to have anything happen after this Fringe,

it's for that community to grow, to talk to each other,

and more importantly, to listen to each other.

As a community, we can find a way to keep this wonderful, wild idea

of getting everybody in the world to come to one place to put on a show,

to keep that wonderful idea alive for next year.

And then find the issues, talk about them, listen about them,

and make it better for the next year, and make it better for the next year.

And the Fringe will be here year after year after and year after that.

For some people, this, their first Fringe, will be the first Fringe.

The first Fringe is the absolute best Fringe ever.

And no Fringe in the future will ever be as good, as magical, or as perfect as this one.

There's the challenge.

I want the Fringe to be something where people coming back

will look at their second Fringe as the absolute best ever.

As their third Fringe as the one that is as good as before.

Their fourth Fringe to be as magical.

Their fifth one to be as perfect as it could possibly be.

The Fringe should not be about diminishing returns.

The Fringe should be about illuminating, captivating, enervating, and lifting everyone up.

That's what I want to see over the next 11 months.

That's what I want to see next year when the Fringe comes around in 2025.

So there's no interview in the show today.

There's just me and letting off a little bit of steam.

But I'm not just going to leave you with that.

We're going to leave you with a little recap from our favourite troubadour here, Daniel Koehner.

Daniel, of course, wrote our song that always pops up in the prologue every year

as we use that to kick the tyres.

So I think it's only right that Daniel closes out this season in August as well.

As he sings about our city, the festivals, the Fringe, the mystique of our home.

Whether you're here for a day, a week, a month,

or a year.

And as I say goodbye, let's sing Welcome to Edinburgh.

The Water of Leith

The Royal Mile

Arthur's Seat

Calton Hill

The Castle Keep

The Old Town, the New Town

Near and far

Welcome to Edinburgh

From this wheel

High above the ground

And the teeming crowds

The colours and the sounds

A hundred thousand

Peddlers of the arts

Singing their songs

Playing their parts

The good and the bad

And the vulnerable

The underbar

Welcome to Edinburgh

cascading

Fade to the West

Paradis

R Ora

Paris

ladı

Di Fenifaron

From this wheel

What can you see now?

Spires and domes

An upside-down cow

Posters and flyers

Filling every space

A single piper

Amazing grace

A fantastic festival

A cornucopia

Welcome to Edinburgh

Daniel Caner there with Welcome to Edinburgh,

a perfectly titled song for our final episode of this year,

from Edinburgh.

There may well be more as we speak to the community throughout the year,

but I can guarantee you one thing.

The Fringe will be back next year.

We'll all do our best to take care of it.

I'll play my part.

I'll catch you back here in August.

Hasty back.

You've been listening to the Edinburgh Fringe Show,

hosted by Ewan Spence,

produced by Spence Media and Radio 6 International.

Listen to more at edinburghfringe.thepodcastcorner.com.