Oasis v Edinburgh Fringe

Have the Gallaghers finished off the Edinburgh Fringe 2025 Before It Has Begun?

Last month I paid £600 a week for my accommodation at the Edinburgh Fringe. Next year the Fringe runs from August 1 to August 25. If I want to stay for just one night on August 8 the going rate at the W Hotel for one person on laterooms.com is currently £2639. Though it does look like a very nice hotel and is closer to the centre than my single room. 

The reason, I’m guessing, is Oasis, who are performing at Murrayfield on August 8 & 9. The Gallagher Brothers have done what the airbnb rate gougers of this beautiful city have not been able to do, and have priced me out of the Edinburgh Fringe.

Needless to say I'm not the only one. I guess visitors who are only coming up for a short period can choose another week to visit. Given that the city will be overrun by bucket-hatted middled aged loons hoping to be mad for it one last time before heart disease kicks in, that might not be such a bad idea.

But what about performers who have to be up there for their full runs? How is this going to impact on their costs, which are painfully high enough already? Interestingly there has been a recent trend for shorter stints. Both Sam Campbell and this year's Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Amy Gledhill only played the second half of the Fringe and it didn't seem to do them any harm.

There has already been lots of talk on social media about the future of the Fringe and how it has grown far too big. It invariably seems to come down to accommodation costs. Even performing on the Free Fringe, where venue costs can be kept down, there is little way of avoiding the cost of a bed. No wonder I heard about people commuting from Glasgow and even Newcastle - a place not even in the same country as the Fringe!

People have even talked about a different city staging a Fringe somewhere else in August that could compete with Edinburgh. This would be a really radical move. It might work, but it might take years to establish itself. The Edinburgh Fringe wasn't born overnight. Well, it was, back in 1947,  but it took over half a century to get this big and important.

One solution might be for the Fringe to move its dates in 2025. It could, in theory, start in the middle of August and run until early September. It already overlaps with Scottish school terms and while the weather might not be so great in September nobody visits Edinburgh in the summer for the climate.

There might be clashes with University premises such as The Pleasance which will be needed for new terms, but the Fringe has run into early September before. Maybe there is a little bit of wriggle room there. And there are plenty of commercial venues that aren't linked to the University.

Perhaps Sam Campbell and Amy Gledhill had the right idea. If the Fringe can't formally move the dates the performers can always unilaterally move their own dates. Why not book two week runs starting after the Gallaghers and their gangs have moved on? And if there is scope to extend the runs into September then consider that. Do anything to avoid accommodation costs on August 8 & 9. Actually - update - things are worse than they originally seemed. Due to insane demand there is another Oasis date at Murrayfield on August 12, which really puts a fly in the Fringe ointment. 

There's always the hope of some trickle down - that the flood of Oasis fans into the city might take in some comedy gigs as well as the biggest comedy gig of all taking place at Murrayfield. But I can't really see this. Back in 2007 Ricky Gervais upset a lot of the Fringe by doing a gig at Edinburgh Castle, drawing away a potential audience from smaller shows that needed the ticket sales. I remember rushing from the Castle to catch a late-night rocky horror-style musical Psister Psycho at the Underbelly (I think). I don't remember being knocked over by the stampede of Gervais fans heading in the same direction. 

There is one other possibility of course. The reunion tour starts on July 25. Given the sibling's past history, maybe they will have fallen out before it reaches Scotland and the shows might never happen. Unlikely I know, given the payday in store for them. I wouldn't wish for families to have a beef but it may be the only way there will be an audience for comedy gigs over that weekend.

Or has anyone else got any bright ideas to save the Fringe?

Buy tickets for Oasis here.