The Stage

Virgin Money to sponsor Edinburgh fringe

Published Wednesday 2 February 2011 at 13:22 by Thom Dibdin

Virgin Money has been announced as the new sponsor for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s free street performances on the High Street and the Mound.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has been managing the daily outdoor performances on the Royal Mile since 2000. Over this time, the managed area has grown to include The Mound precinct with its Half Price Hut, and provides a vital arena for fringe performers to publicise their shows.

Chief executive of the Festival Fringe Society, Kath M Mainland, said: “One of the core responsibilities of the Fringe Society is to support those who participate in the fringe and the opportunities offered by the event on the High Street and The Mound that we manage each year is a key part of that support.”

She promised that the society would be working with the financial services division of the Virgin Group, which has its headquarters in Edinburgh, to make the ‘Fringe on the High Street’, as it is now being branded, and the events that surround it “even more exciting and dynamic than they have ever been before”.

The Royal Bank of Scotland sponsored the free events on the High Street for ten years, pulling out of the role at the end of the 2010 event. Virgin Money have committed to a three year deal from 2011 to 2013.

According to statistics from the Fringe Society, around one million people visited the High Street in August to sample the entertainment on offer. Over the month there were 278 extracts of Fringe shows performed on specially constructed outdoor stages, 89 performers staging circle shows, over 200 buskers and over 54 other assorted artists.

Virgin Money’s chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia added: “The ‘Fringe on the High Street’ event offers the people of Edinburgh, and hundreds of thousands of visitors, a chance to watch for free, the best street theatre in the world as well as extracts from hundreds of Fringe shows.

“At Virgin Money we aim to make ‘everyone better off’ which makes the Fringe Society the perfect partner for us as it’s open and accessible to everyone. We are planning to paint the town red for three weeks in August and beyond.”

The 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe will run from August 5 to 29.