Extensive BBC Press Coverage for Extant at the Edinburgh Festival 2025

Our aim to make the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 more accessible to visually impaired audiences has been a resounding success. Thanks to funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation who support our Enhance programme, we’ve been able to attract a lot of press attention, demonstrate to industry peers that visually impaired access is possible at the fringe and encourage dozens of visually impaired audiences to attend a range of performances.

We worked in partnership with ZOO Venues to make them the first accessible venue for visually impaired audiences and three Post-Enhance shows headlined their programme: ‘Big Little Sister’ by Holly Gifford, ‘I Think It Could Work’ by Full Out Formula / Almanac Projects and ‘Small Town Boys’ by Shaper/Caper.

After inviting the Blind BBC journalist Ian Hamilton to experience the Enhance performance of Big Little Sister he reflected that: “as a blind audience member, this felt different, not just because I could follow the show without strain, but because someone had thought about what I might need. It’s rare at the Fringe to feel that way.”

In preparation for the Enhance shows all of ZOO’s staff and the show’s creators received visual impairment awareness training and the show’s creators received Touch Tour training too. Artist, Holly Gifford said “being part of Enhance not only makes access possible, it expands what storytelling means to us. Working with Extant helped me shape the experience for blind audiences. We looked at what parts needed describing and how to do it in a way that felt like storytelling, not a bolt-on. It wasn’t a chore. It made the show better.”

For the Enhance programme at ZOO we worked with two local visually impaired advocates who supported us in marketing and public engagement of the programme and we were delighted that over 60 people engaged with the Touch Tours, listened to the pre-show programme notes and attended the performances.

Our Artistic Director Maria Oshodi says: “we’re showing that accessibility can be built in from the start, not tacked on at the end. Once you work this way, you don’t go back.” ZOO’s Artistic Director, James Mackenzie agrees and sees the financial benefit of making their programme more accessible as it ensures more people can buy tickets to their shows. He has already made the same commitment for their programme to be accessible to visually impaired audiences next year and said “we can’t alter buildings or knock down walls, most spaces are temporary, but we can change attitudes and the way we operate.”

Alongside our Enhance work we hosted our second annual ‘Open House on Access Event’ in collaboration with Visually Impaired Creators Scotland (VICS) and ZOO. This free, drop in event, stimulated many discussions on visually impaired access, audiences and creatives. With representatives attending from the Fringe Society, Edinburgh International Festival, Underbelly, Taiwan Season, Singapore Spotlight, RNIB as well as individual artists and producers, it engaged 30 people who learnt about what they could do for visually impaired audiences and creatives in the future.

What we’ve been able to demonstrate with this a proof of concept and how Extant is the industry leader in this field. If you work with a willing venue partner, identity artists who want to make their work more accessible, train people in visual impairment awareness training and how to deliver a touch tour and then market this whole offer to visually impaired people then audiences will come.

Ian Hamilton concludes with: “What’s happening at ZOO shouldn’t be a one-off. If a small venue can pull this off at the busiest arts festival in the world, there’s no reason others can’t do the same.”

Press

Ian Hamilton writes for BBC Scotland, 12th August 2025: The Fringe shows that put accessibility centre stage

Ian Hamilton, BBC Radio 4,  In Touch, 26th August 2025, timestamp: 9 minutes, 14 seconds: Casting your Vote, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, JAWS pricing.

Severin Carrell writes for The Guardian, 11th August 2025  ‘Use your other senses’: pioneering show for the blind hits Edinburgh

Jane Bradley writes for The Scotsman, 27th June 2025, The first ‘fully accessible’ Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue to be launched this summer

Fergus Morgan writes for The Stage, 26th June 2025, EdFringe first as venues go fully accessible for visually impaired