The Edinburgh Fringe Festival as it normally looks, in 2012
Looming on the horizon is a huge decision for the arts industry: whether or not to proceed with an in-person Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2021. The world’s largest arts festival, which in 2018 featured more than 55,000 performances of 3,548 shows in 317 venues, it’s a vital part of the ecosystem and a reliable springboard for talent such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the League of Gentlemen, and Graham Norton. But can it be managed in Covid times?
Anthony Alderson, director of the Pleasance Theatre Trust, runs theatres in both London and Edinburgh. The latter is one of the stalwarts of the Fringe, but right now it’s just an empty building.