Love the Fringe was launched on Thursday, June 26 at the Virgin Hotel at the Cowgate in Edinburgh. This is a new membership scheme created by the organisations that form the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, offering exclusive deals and offers across the festival and much more discounts at local shops and restaurants, free tickets and bar discounts.
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00:00The new Love the Fringe membership scheme was launched on 1st of May by organisations that form the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
00:07We went along to the launch at the Virgin Hotel in Cowgate to find out what it was all about.
00:11The basic premise of Love the Fringe is to change the tone around the Fringe.
00:16There's a degree of negativity that's crept in over the last few years.
00:20We all love the event, so Love the Fringe is really about creating a positive spin around it.
00:26Initially it's very much focused on this membership scheme that we're running,
00:30which is meant to be a kind of win-win for everybody really,
00:33in that it uses a certain amount of free tickets in order to encourage a membership to become part of the festival.
00:40And from the public point of view it means that they can buy into seeing shows at the festival
00:44and double the value of their money, essentially.
00:47So it's a really good value thing. That's just in terms of tickets.
00:50On top of that, depending on the tier that they come in,
00:53there are lots of other advantages like bar discounts, advice on shows, new sheets that come out.
01:01Just generally buying into the concept of how the festival works, and discounts on shops and bars.
01:06Love the Fringe was created to sustain the 77-year-old festival into the future.
01:11We're in danger of festivals becoming sort of elitist because they've become too expensive.
01:16The ticket price keeps going up because the cost of being in Edinburgh keeps going up.
01:22And so what we're trying to do is find a way for corporates to get involved,
01:27for restaurants, for every single business across the city to say,
01:33yes, I love the Fringe, I want to support this, I want to support the artists who come,
01:38because the benefits of the arts are far, far more reaching than they are just in terms of
01:45the pound in artists' pockets or venues' pockets or whatever it is.
01:49So how will Love the Fringe benefit those who put on shows,
01:53and audience members who attend the shows in the Fringe every August?
01:58Love the Fringe is going to be really exciting for venues.
02:01I think it's about making sure that the programme is really giving back to the city,
02:06but giving back to everybody that makes the Fringe happen.
02:09So I think the whole programme is about raising excitement about this thing that happens every year,
02:16but the city sometimes doesn't realise it's happening to it.
02:19So it's about bringing that whole joy of loving the Fringe,
02:24and what it does for us year on year for, what, 77 years?
02:27So it's timely and brilliant and it's really positive.
02:32I go to the Fringe, I spend a small mortgage through the Fringe,
02:37and I know that the money is going back to support the artists and the producers.
02:42And at the end of the day, I think it's a good thing.