Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, officially opens August 4—and it really has earned its title. As the month-long celebration (which runs until August 28) kicks off, The Fringe Society has released statistics about this year's festival.
In total, there are 3,535 shows registered to perform—though this number may include shows performing at multiple venues, or shows that have cancelled their runs since registering. Across those thousands of shows are artists who hail from 72 countries, making the festival a true international celebration. There is a strong contingent of representation for Fringe's home, too: 973 shows from Scotland, with 469 of them being from Edinburgh itself, are on offer.
As the festival looks to make seeing theatre as accessible as it can to Fringe-goers, the average ticket price this year is £12. Expanding on the festival's accessibility are also 439 shows that are completely free, with a further 614 shows using the "pay what you want" or "pay what you can" model.
The total number of performances this month? 52,000. That's averaging 2,080 performances a day at the festival in Scotland's capital.
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said in a statement, “I love this time of year, when Edinburgh becomes this melting pot of creativity and global connection, it is just brilliant to be off and running with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023! There are so many who have worked so hard to get to this point—artists, producers, venues, all the behind-the-scenes workers and Fringe supporters, too many more to mention—I want to say a massive thank you to all of you, and hope you get a chance to enjoy this amazing thing you’ve created over the next three-and-a-bit weeks!"
The festival also operates as a massive event across the arts industry for discovering new artists and shows. For this year's fringe, over 700 reviewers, editors, journalists, and broadcasters will be profiling and amplifying artists and their work at Fringe. And about 950 industry professionals from 45 countries have been approved to scope out the next big thing.
“The Fringe Society exists to support artists come to the Fringe and our team will be within the Fringe Central Artist Hub throughout August with on the ground help and advice," McCarthy also said in her statement. "There is a great program of events taking place there, to support artists with their future career ambitions. For our Fringe audience, please dive into this wonderful festival with its incredible mix of genres and imagination; from established names to thousands of first-time or emerging performers. I urge you now more than ever, to support the artists by going to see shows, and then more shows, and then see even more! Get out there and 'Fill Yer Boots'!”
The most up-to-date source for discovering shows and artists is this year's new Fringe app which has been downloaded over 36,000 times so far as festival-goers get into the swing of Fringe (it is co-sponsored by Playbill). To learn more about how to make the most of the app and the Fringe, check out Playbill's coverage at Playbill Goes Fringe.
In addition to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, there are 10 other festivals running in August: The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, The Edinburgh International Festival, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, The Edinburgh Art Festival, The Edinburgh International Book Festival, The Edinburgh International Film Festival, The Scottish International Storytelling Festival, The Edinburgh Science Festival, The Edinburgh International Children's Festival, and Edinburgh's Hogmanay.
