The Stage

Edinburgh council turns down fringe bid for licence exemptions

Published Thursday 15 July 2010 at 14:48 by Thom Dibdin

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and an independent theatre company have been knocked back by Edinburgh City Council’s licensing committee in separate attempts to get reductions in temporary theatre licence fees for this year’s event.

The Fringe Society had proposed three venues: Zoo Roxy, Hill Street Theatre and The Red Bus in The Meadows. They were chosen by the Fringe Society as representative of venues which were particularly deserving of financial aid, as they were being run by a venue manager or company for the first time.

The fourth venue was Vittoria’s restaurant on Leith Walk, in which Wonderland Productions are scheduled to perform Goldini’s La Locandiera. The Irish-based company said they had been let down by their local co-producer and were unprepared for the size of the £849 fee.

Fees for temporary theatre and public entertainment licences have become notoriously high in Edinburgh - £849 for venues up to 200 capacity and £1273 for those of up to 1,000. The issue is of long-standing concern to the Fringe Society.

This year, and following discussions with the council according to Christabel Anderson head of participant services at the fringe, the Society together with the Association of Independent Venue Producers surveyed new and unusual venues, before suggesting three which would be worthy of reduction.

“There are many innovative projects this year, all of which are making a substantial contribution to the festival overall,” she said. “We appreciate however that it would not be practical for a large number of reductions to be considered and we have narrowed down the list to those organisations who we feel would benefit the most.”

Following the meeting of the committee on Wednesday, a council spokesman told the Stage that “following careful consideration” the fees would stand. He added that: “One thing which did come out of the committee was that they [the members of the committee] felt that, should this happen again, it would be good if the individual applicants could come forward themselves.”

Fringe head of external affairs, Neil Mackinnon, said: “We presented our case, it was rejected and I don’t think that there is anything more to say. We will continue the broader discussions with the council.”

He added: “I think the individual councillors were broadly sympathetic to the principal and to supporting the Fringe, but they didn’t feel that the case was made for this particular request.”