Jane Bradley, arts correspondent, speaks to Tony Lankester, who started his role as chief executive of the Fringe Society last week.
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00:00I'm Tony Lancaster, the CEO of the Edinburgh Festival Film Society.
00:06And you've been in post now, Tony, for I think eight days.
00:10So can you tell me a little bit about what you've found so far in your time in Edinburgh?
00:15I've really enjoyed being here over the last week.
00:18It's a little bit like being lowered into a sea of treacle,
00:21delicious, warm, cosy, huggy treacle,
00:24and being told, here's a map, find your way around.
00:28So I've really enjoyed stepping into the environment, getting to know the team,
00:33getting to understand what turns them on,
00:35what makes them excited about coming to work in the mornings,
00:38and beginning to understand some of the challenges
00:41and some of the things that I'm going to be occupying my time with over the next couple of years.
00:47And it's obviously very early days, but what do you see as the vision for The Fringe over the next few years?
00:54I would love for The Fringe to get to a point where it's a more innovative organisation,
00:59where it's using technology, where it's embracing digital,
01:03and where it is coming up with entrepreneurial solutions to the many, in some cases, very old problems that we deal with.
01:12So I would like to bring that kind of thinking into the organisation,
01:17and I would like to find the pockets where it's happening already, because it is happening,
01:22and elevate those a little bit.
01:24Look, I think The Fringe is a solid organisation, it's a solid event,
01:30and what happens here every summer, I think people who live in the city
01:34and people who put it together across the whole ecosystem can be justifiably proud of it.
01:39So there's not a huge amount that needs to be done in terms of improving the event,
01:44but there's a lot that we can do to make the experience even better,
01:48and to make the experience live up to the expectations of the artists who come here,
01:52the producers who bring work here, the audiences who sit in the seats,
01:56and everyone else who forms part of this broader ecosystem.
02:00So I'd love to see all of that happen.
02:02I'd also love to see The Fringe Society have a deeper, ongoing relationship with its city
02:06that's more meaningful, that's more authentic, that's more robust,
02:09where we are constantly speaking throughout the years to the city,
02:14and giving people who live here another reason to be proud of the city that they live in.