The Stage

Edinburgh Festival Fringe opens constitutional review to public

Published Saturday 3 October 2009 at 14:24 by Thom Dibdin

Full coverage of the Edinburgh Festivals

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has opened what it believes to be the biggest ever consultation in the arts, as it asks interested parties to help shape its constitution for the 21st century.

A new online survey asks in-depth and open-ended questions about the makeup and constitution of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the body which is responsible for running the Edinburgh fringe. However the founding core-objectives of the fringe, such as its open-access policy, are not up for review.

The survey is open to everyone and fringe chief executive Kath M Mainland told The Stage that she is “hoping that as many people who are interested in the governance of the fringe and the health of the Fringe Society feel that they have a chance to have their say and take up the challenge”.

It will be live until October 31 and is the first part of a consultation process which will go on through the winter. The results of the survey will be assessed and published by December.

Consultations with key fringe stakeholders will take place in the New Year, with a view to holding a general meeting of the Society to vote on constitutional amendments next June. Should the amendments be adopted, next August’s fringe annual general meeting will be held under the new regime.

Mainland explained: “This is the final part of the process that came out of the difficulties with the box office last year. There were calls for the society to re-examine the governance that allowed the set of circumstances that allowed that ticketing challenge to happen last year.”

The survey can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/y9j8p7r . A full outline of the process of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Constitutional Review is at http://edfringerenewal.wordpress.com/