Fringe fund will give Scottish talent ‘more help and advice’

Published Monday 18 August 2008 at 12:20 by Thom Dibdin

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Details of the allocation of up to £1.2 million to help Scottish companies appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been unveiled by the Scottish government.

The money comes from the government’s £6 million Expo Fund to showcase Scottish talent at the various Edinburgh festivals over the next three years. An initial tranche of £200,000 is available to help companies go to the fringe in 2009, with 20% of the total fund ring-fenced for this project.

Fringe director Jon Morgan told The Stage: “At its most basic this is about getting more work by Scottish theatre and dance practitioners to the festival, but if that was all it was about, I wouldn’t be that excited.

“What I am really excited about is the capacity-building element of the fund. That is about knowledge and skills and ability. The Fringe Society does a lot of work about how to get the best out of the fringe. We want to extend that, using this fund, so that we can give Scottish theatre and dance practitioners more advice and more help throughout the year.”

Applications for the Made in Scotland fund are available from the Scottish Arts Council and need to be submitted by November 17, 2008. The fund is available to support the costs of presenting work at the fringe, as opposed to the costs of commissioning and creating new work.