Edinburgh festival 2025

Give Edinburgh fringe the same status as Olympics, departing head urges
========================================================================

Shona McCarthy says public authorities have routinely ignored needs of world’s largest arts festival

Severin Carrell Scotland editor  
Tue 4 Mar 2025 19.01 EST  
Last modified on Wed 5 Mar 2025 03.06 EST

The  fringe should be given the same status as major sporting events like the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, its outgoing chief executive has said.

Shona McCarthy, who stands down this week after nine years running the fringe, said its needs were routinely ignored by public authorities, who expected it to fend for itself despite its status as the world’s largest arts festival.

“It still doesn’t understand why these things are treated so differently,” McCarthy said, in an interview with the Guardian.

She welcomed what she described as the Scottish government’s “fantastic” decision to pledge £200m over the next three years to invest in Scottish artists and culture, but said that package failed to support the fringe directly.

“You can’t just go with something of the scale of the fringe, of the global importance and brand of the fringe, you can’t say: ‘Well, we support all the artists to go to it, so therefore it’s fine.’”

“You would never say that about the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics. We’re hosting an event of that scale in this city every single year without any of that central infrastructure that you would automatically get with a sporting event.”

She called on the city and government to help with “the unlocking of every single piece of capacity” in the  area to house performers and crew. “I think if we were a major sporting event, that kind of infrastructure would have been put in place,” she added.

McCarthy also said the city desperately needed mobile phone signal boosters as festivalgoers were often unable to secure tickets on their mobiles, which cut income for the fringe as well as venues. “This is not rocket science. This is something that can absolutely be sorted,” she said.

McCarthy, one of the fringe’s longest-serving chief executives, said she was “really surprised” when she arrived in Edinburgh in 2016 to find there were no late-running train services to accommodate ticket holders from outside the city, such as those returning to Glasgow.

She had “lobbied like crazy” for ScotRail, the train operator, and Network Rail to put on later trains and allow ticket booths on stations.

One other success was the recent decision by Queen Margaret University to set up an artists’ village on its small campus just outside Edinburgh every August. That needed to be replicated, she said.

McCarthy was more optimistic that strategic planning might happen after Angus Robertson, the Scottish culture secretary and MSP for Edinburgh Central, announced a new festivals partnership group and pledged additional funding for the fringe.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more



  
Free weekly newsletter  
Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday

Enter your email address  
Sign up

**Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google  and  apply.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more



The Guardian view on the Edinburgh fringe: it’s no joke – festivals need investment  
6d ago

…… comments




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more

  
1 month


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6d ago




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6d ago


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24 Aug 2024


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more




-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 Aug 2024

Most viewed
-----------

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
```