About
This is the second year of an Edinburgh Fringe project seeking to provide Fringe artists and performers with affordable, comfortable, decent and safe accommodation for the duration of their stay. Last year, I handled enquiries from 145 people to offer affordable accommodation to 187 artists across 50+ rooms, predominantly in and around my home in Portobello, between Musselburgh and Meadowbank. Last year, I had around a six-week break until my current job started, so I could focus on this full time. This year, I won’t have any time off work – except for any photography work – which is partly why I only want to focus on longer-stay artists, not least because they’re so wonderfully low-maintenance.
I’m currently recruiting more people to help run parts and/or all of this project, and I am affiliated with the Independent Theatre Council and the Federation of Scottish Theatre.
Why
We all know that Edinburgh Fringe is a time when Edinburgh residents can make substantial amounts of money from renting out rooms or their whole flat during August. We also all know that Edinburgh Fringe is a time when Fringe artists and performers lose substantial amounts of money, increasingly due to the overinflated cost of accommodation, meaning that for many artists, despite however many credit cards they have, they can no longer afford to participate in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The city of Edinburgh profiteers significantly from the artists, performers and performing arts companies which come here to make the Fringe happen without having any financial backing, funding, income or even savings to support them while they’re here. While the Fringe is a lesser place due to the loss of those who can no longer afford to participate, it is ever more important for a shift in thinking around how welcoming our city can be towards Fringe artists, and to shift our priorities towards artists’ wellbeing and sustainability rather than putting profit first. (I’ve got no such reservations about Fringe visitors outside the arts industries though, so if hosts can subsidise artists by charging visitors rather a lot to stay, all the better!)
The most desirable Fringe accommodation is typically very central, including Southside, Tollcross and Newington as they’re nearest the main venues – and if you look for Airbnb and/or TheatreDigsBooker properties in those areas, you’ll find the properties which Fringe artists could not afford to book (for example, £6,680 for a three-bed flat in Leith here on Airbnb, or £2,200 for one room for four weeks here on TheatreDigsBooker). But as we all know, there’s a hell of a lot more of Edinburgh than those few wee miles. That’s where this project comes in. I’m specifically looking for people outside the city centre (in the city centre would be great too, but I assume they’d be all full up, and/or charging small fortunes per night) with any spare rooms who could host Fringe performers during their stay here, for reasonable rent, to help support them in their Fringe experience.
Last year, I ran this project by myself and liaised with 145 people to provide affordable accommodation for 187 people; I only advertised for hosts around Portobello, so I’m hoping to attain far more properties this year by looking further afield across Edinburgh, even though the Fringe is nearly upon us. While the majority of rooms I source are from callouts, I’m also usually offered a number of additional rooms from producers, artists, and other people seeking one or more flatmates and why don’t I do it for them instead.
Why participate?
The international currency of the Fringe is trust. Absolute freaking shitloads of trust. Trust in the venues, in the reviewers, in the audiences, and most of all, in the accommodation which artists book. There are the scams, the catfishing, last-minute cancellations so that hosts can try to charge double, triple or more; and so many more ways in which properties can be unsuitable, including violent hosts, sketchy hosts, filthy homes, overcrowding, and endless noisy parties. For hosts, there are few and limited resources available to them to screen their guests in advance, yet that is how EdFringe accommodation typically works. A complete stranger pays a complete stranger lots of money and turns up at their door and there we go… fingers, toes, eyes and eyebrows dutifully crossed.
But it’s not just any old stranger. While I would definitely not want any old random person stay with me, I feel that Fringe artists and performers are exempt, partly because they are here to work and not party – and of course, staying in an unfamiliar non-Fringe area means no parties by default – and they are also very familiar with staying in theatre digs in people’s homes during touring work. Here’s a wee clip about this by actor Jonny Weldon: twitter.com/jonnyweldon/status/1389822350514868224
It’s essential that hosts are visited and vetted, and that prospective guests are vetted as well, plus we have host contracts and tenancy agreements to protect and cover each party. We also have financial admin support including deposit schemes, plus bursaries to offer subsidised rent to bridge the gap between what artists can afford, and what rent the hosts need to receive. We also offer a liaison and intermediary service to check in throughout the Fringe, and to intervene should any issues arise, to reduce the need for confrontation between hosts and their guests, and also to provide each parties with ongoing contact and support.
While the Fringe Society is backing Theatre Digs Booker (TDB) this year, TDB does not provide vetting or indeed key relevant information about each property, plus it is largely restricted to a small subset of the Fringe performing community. Last year, I found a three-bed flat in Leith on TDB charging £42,000 (!) for August; that’s definitely not happening on my watch.
Because the majority of the properties will be outside the city centre and away from the Fringe bubbles, I feel it’s all the more important to have an inclusive community; last year, we had a Facebook chat so that artists could meet up, see shows with each other, see each other’s shows, hang out together and stay in touch after they’d returned home. I’d like to expand that for this year.