Results of review into Fringe 2008 box office debacle published
posted February 4th, 2009.

The study into the Fringe's 2008 box office disaster by the Scottish accountancy firm Scott-Montcrieff has eventually been published. According to The Times (this piece is well worth reading) damning criticisms in the 48 page report include: Fringe Society management was weak; its procurement process was fundamentally flawed; and it lacked strategic direction and transparency in decision-making. Some of the detailed observations ... minutes not taken at some important meetings ... unsatisfactory project management (virtually non-existent during the implementation stage) ... poor risk assessment ... increasingly poor communication as the project progressed ... no authorised business case. The make-up of the board was questioned, including as it does some venue chiefs, with its potential to affect decision-making at the highest level due to conflicts of interest. Recommendations include: a strengthening of management procedures to reflect ultimate responsibility and accountability plus wholesale changes to procurement and project management procedures.

The Scotsman also carried a report on the publishing of the findings. Later in the day The Guardian, The Stage and Chortle each followed with their own articles on the findings.

The findings can be downloaded from the Fringe web site.

"...Burns is Bard from the Festival"
posted January 22nd, 2009.

is the amusing headline in the Scotsman. It appears that Jonathan Mills, artistic director of the EIF, has had a meeting with the Scottish parliament's cross-party group on culture and media, at which he told the MSPs that there would be no Burns-related items in this year's programme. The MSPs are apparently not best pleased, not least as the Scottish Executive is giving the EIF a £100K grant to celebrate Homecoming Scotland (2009 is the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth).

2008 Festival ticket sales
posted August 25th, 2008

The Guardian and Scotsman both report that provisional figures show that Fringe 2008 ticket sales are down by approximately 10% on 2007. Book festival figures are reported to be up and International festival sales are said to be buoyant. Other 2008 Fringe statistics include 18792 perfomers giving 31320 performances of 2088 shows at 247 venues.

The BBC reports that the 2008 International Festival took £2.6m in ticket sales, a 7% rise over the previous year. Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray was the festival's most successful dance show ever at the box office. A full summary can be found here on the EIF web site. Ticket sales at the Book Festival were up 3% with more than 300 out of the 750 events being sold out before the festival started - Sean Connery's was sold out in under an hour. While the Tattoo sold out as usual, the process took longer this year and there were many more returns than in previous years, reportedly attributable to the reduction in the numbers of American visitors.

Heated Fringe AGM
posted August 19th, 2008

Unsurprisingly given the problems this year, the Stage reports that the Fringe AGM (16th August 2008) was a heated affair with calls for apologies and the resignation of the board. As some punters suspected, the software supplier, Pivotal Engineering, has gone into administration. Three investigations will be commissioned into the box office fiasco: one IT specific into possible future options will be conducted by an external company (report due by the end of October); the Scottish Government, the Scottish Arts Council, the city council and Scottish Enterprise will all be invited to look at the overall problem, including the procurement, installation and operation of the system (report due in November); and finally a review of the role of the Fringe Society itself will be carried out. Meanwhile, the Scotsman reports that the Fringe is considering legal action over the fiasco.