Edinburgh Fringe in crisis…
It started with a Tweet (or whatever the X equivalent is now called!) “Of the 3,300 shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival: 10 have audio description options (0.3%)”
When I read this, I had to check out the facts for myself. As of today, the situation has improved very, very slightly: the Fringe Society website lists 3984 shows, of which just 27 have audio description, making a grand total of 0.6% of shows audio described. Woohoo, aren’t VI audiences spoilt for choice!
Joking aside, this situation is clearly not good enough. For those who were not aware, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest performance arts festival, with almost 2.5 million tickets sold at last year’s event. It’s frankly outrageous that in 2024, VI people are almost totally excluded from this major celebration of arts and culture. So Extant decided to do something about it!
Along with our Scottish friends at VICS (Visually Impaired Creatives Scotland), we approached the Fringe Society to request a crisis meeting, the Fringe Society being the organisation that underpins the Fringe, selling tickets, supporting performers and assisting audiences. We also got in touch with ZOO Venues, one of the leading venues at the fringe, to set up an Open House for artists, venue staff and interested parties to discuss the situation.
Do you want to hear something terrible? When uploading our Open House event to the Fringe Society industry focused website Fringe Central, there wasn’t even an option to input alt text for the image we had for our event.
The Open House took place at ZOO Southside on Friday 2nd August, hosted by myself alongside VICS’ Artistic Director, Kirin Saeed. Representatives attended from sight loss organisations, venues, sighted and VI freelance artists, plus Fringe Society staff. The conversation was wide-ranging, but centred around 2 key questions:
- What do we want for future years at Edinburgh Fringe?
- How do we make change happen?
Ahead of the Open House, I gathered statements from VI artists who have taken work to the Fringe in the last few years. Amy Bethan-Evans brought her show ‘Tinted’ to the Fringe in 2022 and found there was a lack of support for VI artists to bring work to the festival. Most shows at Fringe rely on physical flyering to bring in audiences, a process which is inherently inaccessible to VI people. Amy also found that events like the ‘Meet The Press’ day were not set up for disabled artists, with confusing layout and lack of clarity on where to queue. There was a general lack of awareness of VI needs, however, some individual venue staff members were keen to learn and help.
Kirin Saeed brought her show ‘Cabaret in the Dark’ to the Fringe 2023, and similarly to Amy found a lack of consideration for VI people’s needs around events, particularly launch parties which are vital networking opportunities, but often noisy, packed and confusing. Kirin found the volume of paperwork difficult, and that there was a lack of information upfront, or that key information was given in an inaccessible format causing delays. Kirin noted that, while the Fringe has pushed for more shows to have BSL and captions over recent years, audio description seems to be ‘the poor cousin.’ She observed that, if you can’t see shows, it’s hard to think about being a future performer.
At the Open House, sighted artists were keen to find out what they can do to make their shows more accessible to VI audiences. We talked about the fact that access can be on a scale, from a simple audio introduction or touch tour, building up to integrated audio description or a full traditional AD with headsets – and Extant can help companies and venues with all scales of audio description. We discussed the barriers that artists face to making their work accessible, including lack of knowledge or resources, and that venues and Fringe Society need to better support artists by providing information well ahead of deadlines, increasing flexibility and better training for staff.
In answer to the question, ‘What do we want?’ the group responded with a seemingly simple ask: 1000 shows to be VI accessible at Edinburgh Fringe 2025. In other words, 25% of all Fringe shows should have, as a minimum, a self-introduction for stand-up comedians, or an audio introduction for theatre and dance shows.
The answer to ‘How do we make it happen?’ was more complicated, but there are some clear steps that Extant and VICS are already putting into place. We met with representatives from the Fringe Society and have agreed to work together to achieve the 1000 show goal. Initiatives suggested include: webinars and resources for artists, outreach work to VI audiences, consultation with venues, and better support in place for VI artists bringing their work to the Fringe.
While we crack on with that small task between now and August 2025, in the meanwhile VI artists are smashing it at this year’s Fringe, check out their shows if you’re in town for the festival. Douglas Walker is performing in ‘Aaaand Now for Something Completely Improvised’ at Assembly George Square Studios, and you can catch VI comedian Jake Donaldson in his show ‘Spectacle’ at Just the Tonic at the Mash House.
Louisa Sanfey, Artist Development Manager, August 2024