The Edinburgh Fringe has been described as being like standing in a cold shower tearing up £20 notes. Now is the time when potential participants are asking themselves Should I really take a show up there in August? So, in a spirit of altruism and pomposity, I thought I'd give my personal opinion on Seven Things You Need to Know about performing at the Edinburgh Fringe...
1. HOW MUCH DOES ACCOMMODATION COST?
You know the phrase "an arm and a leg"?
If you think you can get anything as cheap as that, you are having an idle fantasy or you are taking hallucinogenic drugs far stronger than you should if you want to stand upright on a stage.
And, if you haven't been up, you have no idea. The Edinburgh Fringe is unimaginably large and sprawling. It is the biggest arts festival in the world; Edinburgh is a relatively small city. Last year, there were over 21,000 performers in Edinburgh simply for the Fringe. That is just performers. Then you have the back-stage, administrative, media and service industry people and the audiences themselves.
Last year, there were 41,689 performances of 2,542 shows in 258 venues. And that's just the Fringe. Simultaneously, you have the separate official Edinburgh Festival, the Military Tattoo, the Art Festival, the Book Festival and the Television Festival. Any one of those would be a major event on its own in any other city. In Edinburgh, they are happening simultaneously. Plus there are endless other events and street theatre on a massive scale. And just normal meandering tourists. Last year, at the Fringe alone, there were around 1.8 million bums-on-seats for shows. No-one knows exact figures for sure because of the increasingly large PBH Free Fringe and Laughing Horse Free Festival numbers.
It is a simple case of Thatcherite market-led supply and demand. The demand for accommodation is enormous; the supply is severely limited.
Someone I know who is friends with an estate agent in Edinburgh was told - this is true - that one rule of thumb they use for calculating rental rates for flats during the Fringe is to ask the owner: "How much is your annual mortgage?" That then becomes a fair amount to charge someone for the month of August.
I had relatives and friends in Edinburgh until three years ago. Now I have to pay. It's horrendous.
The phrase to bear in mind with everything connected to the Edinburgh Fringe is "like lambs to the slaughter".
But, like the mud at Glastonbury, it is addictive.
2. SHALL I GO UP FOR JUST ONE WEEK?
No.
The first (half) week is dead and tickets are half-price or two-for-one. You will get low audiences and even less money. If you do get audiences, they will fall off a cliff on the first Tuesday, when the half-price deals end.
The second week is usually almost equally dead.
The third week perks up a little.
The final week is buzzing.
But, if you have not been there since the very beginning and only go up for the last week, you will have generated no word of mouth about your show, no momentum and no review quotes to put on your posters and flyers. And you will be wiped off the face of Edinburgh awareness by a tsunami of other shows which have all these things.
That is if you even get a review, which is highly unlikely.
Whenever a foolhardy Fringe virgin asks my advice, I also tell him/her:
"You have to go up for three consecutive years"
The first year, you will be lost and ignored. The second year you will, with luck, know how to play the system. The third year, reviewers and audience will think you are a regular and you may get noticed.
I know one act who has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe three times. Great act. Wonderful. Got 4-star reviews every time. But, because he/she could not afford to go up every year, there was no momentum building from year to year. He/she, in effect, had to start from scratch each year as an unknown.
Remember that it is not just audiences but reviewers who have a high turnover. The punter and reviewer who saw your show two years ago is probably not in town/ not reviewing this year.
The upside, of course, is that last year nearly one thousand journalists and nearly another thousand "arts industry professionals" did attend and they came from countries ranging from Australia to Zimbabwe. They are your real target audience.
3. CAN I RELAX ON THE PUBLICITY FRONT BECAUSE MY VENUE'S PRESS OFFICE AND THE FRINGE'S PRESS OFFICE WILL HANDLE ALL MY MEDIA PUBLICITY?
You have no idea how it works.
No they won't.
The venue's press office is not there to specifically publicise your show. They publicise the venue and act as a central contact point. They will try to be even-handed, but they have lots of other shows. They cannot do constant hands-on publicity for you.
Same thing with the Fringe Office. They are a central contact point. Keep them informed. But they are too busy to do the impossible and publicise your show. Last year, they were dealing with 41,689 performances of 2,542 shows in 258 venues. And with over 21,000 self-obsessed and wildly disorganised - possibly mentally unstable - performers. This year, the numbers will probably be higher.
The Samaritans are the ones to ask for help in Edinburgh.
4. HOW MUCH MONEY MIGHT I MAKE?
Are you mad?
You have to assume a 100% loss on your investment. Even if people make a profit, they usually calculate that by ignoring accommodation costs and the amount of money they would have made anyway if they had not gone up to Edinburgh.
5. I HAVE A PROMOTER AND/OR PRO AGENT. HE WILL LOOK AFTER MY INTERESTS, RIGHT?
He might do. And you might win the EuroLottery. Or he might try to screw you rigid.
One thing to look out for is an agent/manager/promoter's expenses.
One performer I know went up with a well-known promoter who was looking after seven shows that year. He quite reasonably deducted the cost of his own accommodation and transport. But, instead of dividing the total costs by seven and spreading that cost between all seven shows, he deducted 100% of the cost from each show's profits, thus getting back 700% of his total costs.
Another thing to look out for is agents, promoters or managers who take their percentage off the gross, not off net receipts. They should be taking their percentage off the genuine profit - the net receipts after deduction of genuine overheads and expenses. If they take their percentage off the gross receipts before deduction of overheads and expenses, you are being severely disadvantaged.
Alright. They are screwing you rigid.
If your show makes £100 but costs £90 to stage, then the profit is £10. If the promoter/agent takes 10% of that net profit, then he gets £1 and you get £9.
If your show makes £100 and the promoter/agent takes 10% off that gross profit and the show cost £90 to put on, then he gets £10 and you get zero.
And, in both those examples, the show made exactly the same amount of money.
And let's not even get into the games which can be played with the point at which they add in or deduct VAT.
6. WILL IT RAIN?
Yes.
7. SHOULD I GO BACK FOR A SECOND AND THIRD YEAR?
Yes.