15 April, 2020

Edinburgh Fringe festival cancelled for first time in 70 years

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - August 3, 2013: A street performer balances on a tightrope, held up by volunteers picked from the crowd on the Royal Mile, on the first weekend of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The world’s largest arts festival has been cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Edinburgh Fringe joins the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in scrapping this year’s iteration due to COVID-19.

Collectively, the five festivals were expected to draw more than 4.4 million people to Scotland, along with 25,000 artists.

In a statement, Shona McCarthy, CEO of the Fringe Society (the charity and organisation responsible for organising the event), said the decision had not been taken lightly.

She also hopes her organisation would find ways of “uniting people” under a fringe umbrella.

“Just a few months ago, the idea of Edinburgh without the Fringe and our sister festivals would have been totally unthinkable,” McCarthy said.

“Now, like so many other aspects of our day-to-day lives, we must pause and take stock in the face of something far bigger.”

McCarthy said registration fees, tickets and memberships would all be refunded.

Due to the fringe being an open-access event, the governing Fringe Society cannot formally cancel it in the same way other festivals can, according to The Guardian.

In this respect, it can, however, recommend that the many venues and participants stop their planning and refund deposits and tickets.

A joint statement obtained by The Guardian to visiting companies and performers from the fringe’s biggest venues, the Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Underbelly and Pleasance confirmed the event’s cancellation.

“Whilst we are suspending our activity for the foreseeable future, if there is any chance that we might rekindle the spark of a festival fringe at our venues in August 2020 and rebuild an event for this summer, we will certainly try,” the statement read.

“The undefinable and indefatigable fringe spirit has always been one of this festival’s most exhilarating characteristics, and if there is any way that we can capture just a tiny ounce of that spirit this summer, then we hope you know we will give it our best shot.”

The news follows a consistent stream of event cancellations from around the world, due to travel, social distancing and event capacity restrictions brought into effect to arrest the spread of COVID-19, including the likes of IMEX Frankfurt, SXSW, ITB Berlin, and Australia’s ATE20 event.

Featured image: Edinburgh Fringe 2013 (iStock.com/georgeclerk)

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