As with most things connected to the Edinburgh Fringe, it's always difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. This week, the Telegraph carried a story in which Martin Witts claimed he'd been waiting three months for the box-office payments for the Joan Rivers show he produced. On closer reading, the article suggested the problem was not caused directly by the Fringe organisation itself, but by venue managers refusing to pass on cash to the producers until they'd received every last penny from the Fringe office.
Squabbles and misinformation are an inevitable consequence of dealing with the world's biggest arts festival, especially one that still clings on to the let's-do-the-show-right-here ethos of its founders back in 1947. What is beyond doubt, however, is that 2008 was a disastrous year for the organisation. It was nothing to do with the work on stage and everything to do with a £350,000 box office system that crashed on its first day of operation. That was just the first of a series of technical failures, including an inability to print tickets, the overselling of some shows and the underselling of others.
By the middle of August, Pivotal Integration Ltd, the company responsible for the system, had gone into administration and, in the closing days of the event, Fringe director Jon Morgan resigned, re-emerging recently as the interim director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre. The board did not suggest Morgan was to blame, but his departure took off some of the pressure from angry promoters who'd lost sales.
In the summer, the Fringe reported its central box-office takings were down by a relatively modest 10%, but the knock-on effect of the computer failure has been much worse. Depending on who you listen to, the cost of sorting out the mess was anything between £200,000 and £1m.
Today, the Scotsman reported that "insiders" believe the organisation will need a £500,000 bail out before the end of the financial year - a figure not recognised by the city council. The newspaper previously reported news of a rescue package of half that figure made up of a £120,000 loan from the council, a one-off grant of £65,000 from the Scottish Arts Council and a £60,000 advance on a grant from the Scottish government.
Even if most of that money is eventually paid back, it indicates serious cashflow problems. It adds up to a big knock in confidence that, compounded by the uncertainty of the recession and the delay in advertising for Morgan's successor, it will take time to recover from. Despite all this, however, surely it's naive to imagine the crisis will lead to a boycott of the event. The Fringe is too big a fixture, too significant a career-maker and, frankly, too much fun for theatre-makers to stay away for long.
