Comedy 'at heart' of 70th Edinburgh Fringe

Audiences for the milestone year are expected to exceed 4.5 million – that’s about the same size as the World Cup.

But be under no illusion: it’s unlikely most people will be racing to watch celebrity performers in opera, music, theatre and dance. The vast majority come for the comedy.

In the last two decades, the Fringe has snowballed into a commercial free-for-all of comedy and cabaret.

Comedian Richard Herring has seen the change first hand. This year, for his show ‘Oh Frig, I’m 50!’, he’s celebrating his own personal anniversary – 30 years since his first Edinburgh show.

“In the early 90s, I’d come up and there were 30 or 40 comedy shows and people were complaining that was a lot!

“Now, I think it’s about a thousand comedy shows, so it’s become a comedy festival at the heart of this but all the other stuff is still going on.”

Despite the wealth of shows, Radio presenter John Robins believes the fringe still plays an important role in helping new comedy talent break through.

“I think it’s the only place where you get tested so intently over such a long period of time.

“The TV people come here in the third week, there are bookers and agents, absolutely everyone. In terms of exposure it really is the place to be.”

:: Suicide Fringe show goes ahead
:: Laughing about politics at Edinburgh Festival

The Festival itself isn’t trying to compete in a popularity contest. It is much more expensive to stage a classical concert and, lets face it, it’s a harder sell, so it relies heavily on grants.

It was founded in 1947 to provide a cultural lift to post-war Britain and it’s creative achievements in seven decades shouldn’t be overlooked.

Festival Director Fergus Linehan says: “This is a city with an extraordinary cultural landscape because it has had 70 years of this festival.

“That doesn’t just exist for 3 weeks, it spans the whole 12 months, so I do like to think of the many ways the festival enriches Edinburgh and Scotland.”

Greek-inspired productions are an example of the boundary-pushing work the festival has produced. A retelling of the Oedipus story set in the seedy East End first staged in 1988 redefined opera.

This year it returns as a co-production between Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, directed by Young Vic artistic associate Joe Hill-Gibbins.

“I think it’s good to be very open-hearted about the festival – that seems to me the spirit of it.

“It’s great that there’s opera here, there’s theatre and comedy too. Some comedy that’s going to be here is going to be of a high standard artistically, intellectually. It’s all good, I think.”

The Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe will see 53,232 performances of 3,398 shows staged across 300 venues. It runs until 28 August.