Vanishing acts
Street performers protest against Fringe eviction
COMEDIAN Rory Bremner has backed furious Edinburgh street performers who have been turfed off a High Street pitch they have made their own.
Impressionist Bremner is less than impressed by the decision by Edinburgh Fringe who have declared the traditional performing spot a no-fun zone, and have moved buskers to other areas, including West Parliament Square and The Mound.
The Borders-based funny man and more than 150 other artists have signed an open letter to The Festival Fringe Society accusing organisers of a serious humour failure. The group of Edinburghbased performers claim Fringe bosses are putting profits before performance and offering spaces which are unsuitable for their acts.
Comedy magician, Matt Von Trap, said: “We are not going to be able to perform anywhere on the High Street. We understand that the Fringe are trying to make everything Covid secure, and they have made promises that this will work for all performers, but we are now at the point where the community is quite desperate
because we don’t feel listened to.”
EDINBURGH’S street performers are the face of the Fringe but have been left out in the cold after being evicted from their usual high profile spots.
The artists traditionally use a pitch outside the Festival Fringe Society’s (FFS) Royal Mile office, per-forming juggling and magic acts to a circular audience.
But as a down-sized Fringe kicks into life, artists have been told they can’t perform there and Fringe bosses plan to locate an information office on the site. FFS say the measures are Covid-related to en-sure audience safety and will only be in place during the 2021 festival
Now more than 150 artists and performers, including impersonator Rory Bremner, have written to FFS pushing back against the plans and asking for a bigger say in the planning and management of perfor-mance spaces.
Comedy magician Matt von Trap said: “We feel that the consultation was a pretence and Fringe bosses have brought in private events company, Unique, to run what was a public festival.
“We all love the Fringe and their core values of openness and open access but they have allowed the space to be taken over by Johnnie Walker to put a bar in place with an arena for Covid security. I and many others won’t be able to perform at the Mound space because it’s too small for us, and I don’t see how replacing street entertainment with street drinking is safer than having street performers.”
Dave Southern, who first performed on the Mound in 1988, said: “It seems street drinking is more important to the Fringe Society than street performance this year. Having a bar as part of an open air family performance space is like having a drive-thru restaurant on stage with the ballet!”
Shona McCarthy, FFS Chief Executive, said: “The iconic Fringe Street Events is part of what makes this festival so special, and we’ve done everything we can with partners across the city to enable it to take place in some form. These measures are in place to support public safety and allow audiences to enjoy what our world class street performers have to offer, and are only in place for 2021 in line with re-quired Covid mitigation. We look forward to the full return of Fringe Street Events in 2022 on the High Street and Mound.”