Hi everyone

I wonder if anyone knows of a good online guide to performing at the Edinburgh Festival, everything from a guide to the venues, street show pitches, who to talk too about publicity, that kind of thing.

I would like to take a show there in 2008 for a 2 - 3 week run, and would be looking for a 150 (approx) seat theatre, located near a good busy street pitch so that I could go out and promote the show in the daytime. The show would be a mixture of sideshow stunts and escapes, and would lean towards comedy for the most part. So it would need to be in a location which is good for comedy and spec acts.

Stage size wouldn't have to be huge, but I coudn't deal with a tiny stand up stage, something more akin to what a small band could deal with. 10ft x 8ft I guess would be a minimum.

Thanks in advance

David Straitjacket

Well being the great show man and comedian that I am I have played at the festival many times ..... .unfortunatly only in my dreams so cant be of any help......

BUT I will say this:- its a GREAT idea David! nice one! I may even try and get up to see you.

Hi Dave

I have looked into it in quite a lot of detail and can report that the budget will be approx £8000 to cover basic expenses, that will include performing the full run at one of the top 3 venues at the Fringe, a publicity budget, accomodation, etc etc. The last few bits of the budget need to be confirmed, but the changes are a matter of 10's of £'s rather than 100's.

I've done a lot of work and research so far and am confident I can put on a profitable show, 800 people (or an average of 22% capacity throughout the run) is required to break even, after that there is the very real possibility of a good profit. 800 amounts to 33 people per day over a 24 day run.

Once I have the budget nailed down fully I will be putting together an investors package and looking for people (or one person with deep pockets) to invest all or part of the costs. For a good profit share of course. A local businessman, has suggested that he may well be interested in supplying the whole budget, so there is a possibility its arranged already. But if not I think I have a package that will attract interest.

If anyone here has any stories, advice or pitfalls that they would like to share, I am all ears.

Cheers

David

I just got a third of the investment confirmed, and not from the person mentioned above Looks like this might well be on. Good chance the local guy will take on the other two thirds, if not, then it goes out to investors. Either way, it looks very promising indeed.

By the way, there is an error in one of my above posts. The budget should read £9000, not £8000.

David,

I am by no way saying it can not be done. Please don’t take the following as negative. Just reality…

I performed there this year and had an amazing time. I was lucky to go with a producer who paid for everything. I have produced many theater shows in San Francisco over the past 15 years and think I have a good sense for producing shows.

The thing about the Fringe is very few people make money. It is great fun, great for contacts and a great way to get out there but not great as a way to make money. Plan on spending more than you think and make less. Make sure you have publicity in place and a real marketing plan, posters have to be put up multiple times a day and a good poster helps since you need to stand out.

The best way to fill the house is spend the day performing at a pitch and promoting the show. 90% of our houses were people I met during the day. The reality is you will make more street performing but won’t have the status of doing a theater show.

I wish you the best of luck. Edinburgh is a blast!

Jay Alexander