Latest news with #Lankester
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Fringe boss vows to rebuild trust after 'sabre-rattling' row
He said the relationship with venues appeared to have "lost its way" and suggested "entrenched" positions were to blame for behind-the-scenes tensions. Read more: Support for the Fringe Society is said to have dwindled away from many of the key players in the festival in recent years as it has stepped up lobbying for more public funding. Mr Lankeser suggested there had been 'sabre-rattling' against the Fringe Society, which has overseen the festival since the 1950s. Tony Lankester is chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. (Image: Gordon Terris) Mr Lankester denied claims that the charity had been competing for public funding with venues staging shows at the 78-year-old event, which will return with 3352 shows in its line-up in August. Mr Lankester was speaking after venue operators warned that the financial model behind the event was on the brink of 'collapse' due to the impact of soaring costs in recent years. He urged the venues to ask 'existential questions' about their scale and running costs, and suggested they should not be using the same business model as they were operating under five or 10 years ago. The Fringe Society has faced growing hostility from the Fringe Alliance, an independent collective of venue operators and promoters involved in the festival every year. When the Fringe Alliance was launched in 2023 it pledged to 'work with and support' the Fringe Society, as well as 'raise financial support for the Fringe community and ensure that appropriate support reaches all parts of the Fringe ecology". However a leaked dossier from the Fringe Alliance revealed concerns it has raised privately with politicians and funding bodies about the Fringe Society's growth, budget, influence and funding priorities. The Fringe Society has secured new funding deals with the UK Government to help open a new "Fringe Central" headquarters building and support a 'Keep It Fringe Fund' for UK-based artists. The Scottish Government confirmed £300,000 of new support for the Fringe Society shortly before previous chief executive Shona McCarthy left her role in the spring. The Fringe Alliance has accused the Fringe Society of 'competing with artists and venues for funding rather than facilitating their success' and suggested that its operating model had 'distorted the festival's financial ecosystem' and directed resources aware from the Fringe's 'core creative contributors". Mr Lankester, who was appointed in January, said he started meeting venue representatives in his first week in the job in April and had since met operators of every size. He told The Herald: 'I think the relationship between the Fringe Society and the venues has lost its way a bit. 'I don't want to speculate about why that has happened. I think everyone was talking across each other, and there was no real common understanding or meeting of minds. 'I think we just need to get those conversations back into a sensible space. 'I don't think there is anyone in the Fringe eco-system, including the Fringe Alliance, who wakes up in the morning thinking: 'How can we make things worse today?' 'The Fringe Society is completely focused on making sure that we can deliver the best possible experience for artists. If they are looked after, audiences will have a good time and the venues will do well. We exist to serve the artists. 'I think the venues have perhaps felt left out of conversations. They do view the Fringe Society as being in competition with them to some degree. When I interrogated that with them I couldn't see any clear examples. 'The Fringe Society has been acting in good faith. If you look at the example of the Keep It Fringe Fund, we have become a conduit to pass that money directly to artists. 'The funding that we secured for the Fringe Central building project wasn't up for grabs by other entities. It's not like anyone else lost out. 'I think it all comes down to a common understanding of what our strategy needs to be and what the role of the Fringe Society is.' Mr Lankester admitted there mixed views among venue operators about the future role of the Fringe Society. He said: 'Everyone has their own unique issues. Opinions vary quite a lot. 'Some people say: 'We only want you to run a box office and print a programme and it should be hands-off everything else.' 'Other people say: 'We really need you to raise funds for things and build a way of filtering money back into the ecosystem. 'There has been a certain tone and a sabre-rattling kind of environment about some of the things I have read. "Yet when I sit around the table with people there is a genuine desire to be constructive and move things forward. Whether that is lip service or not I don't know, but I'm taking it at face value. 'For me, the underlying thing is the relationship between the Fringe Society and all the components of the wider ecosystem, improving communication, which we may not have always got it right in the past, and rebuilding trust where it has broken down. 'We have a business relationship with every single venue. Many millions of pounds move around the ecosystem. If there was genuinely zero trust no-one would be trusting us to sell their tickets. 'There might be some suspicions, a slight circling of each other and a wariness. I think it's just about bringing alignment now. 'Everyone in the ecosystem has their own agenda. That's how it should be. They want to see the Fringe Society supporting their agenda. The reality is there are some things we can support them on, but there are others that are not our business. We rely on them to run their businesses as best they can.' Edinburgh's popularity as a tourism destination, new city council restrictions on the short-term letting of properties and the impact of concerts at Murrayfield Stadium clashing with the Fringe for the first time have all been blamed for the crisis. It is said to have forced many artists and performers to limit the runs of their shows, and for venue operators to take an increasing financial risk on their programmes. The number of shows in the printed programme has increased slightly from 3317 in 2024 to 3351 this year. However the number of performances has dropped from 51,446 to 49,521 in the space of 12 months. Mr Lankester said: 'We are not privy to the individuals deals that venues are doing with artists. 'But the landscape has changed. Businesses need to evolve and respond to that. You see that in every industry and every sector around the world. 'If venues are not constantly looking at their business model, looking at the pressures of a changing landscape and still trying to do the same things they did five or 10 years ago the results are going to be pretty sore for them. 'There are existential questions everyone should be asking about size, scale and costs. That kind of business model stuff should be as real for the venues as it is for the Fringe Society or anyone else.' Lyndsey Jackon, deputy chief executive of the Fringe Society, said: 'It has been worrying some people for a while that artists are coming to the Fringe for shorter periods of time. 'But artists have always done a variety of runs. We did do a trend analysis last year and it wasn't particularly stark in any shift. 'We've always said that one of the benefits of doing a full run for three weeks is that you just don't get that level of professional development and immersion in a festival experience anywhere else. 'A shorter run is still a really valuable thing to do, but we always encourage people to do the full three-week run if they can. 'The question we always ask artists is what their objective is. If it's about professional development, building audiences, testing your work and seeing as much as possible then three weeks is probably necessary. 'Each artist will have their own set of objectives, budget and capacity. Artists have obviously got physical, time and financial restraints. Many of them aren't able to take the whole week off 'It doesn't worry me that people are doing different runs as that model as always existed. It would be more worrying if we were seeing three one-week festivals, but I don't think that's true. An enormous number of shows in this programme are doing the full run of the Fringe.' This year's Fringe programme will feature work from 58 countries around the world, including 923 Scottish productions and 1392 drawn from the rest of the UK. Mr Lankester said: 'I think the size of this year's programme demonstrates the resilience of artists. 'I don't think we can pretend that everything is rosy in the garden. We know there are issues, pressures and things we need to respond to. 'But the programme is evidence of what we know about artists, which is how much artists value the Fringe and see it as an important thing to be part of."
Scotsman
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Despite the pleas, Tourist Tax income can only go so far
In the past week the new Edinburgh Festival Fringe chief executive, Tony Lankester, made the latest bid for a chunk of Tourist Tax proceeds. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Then comedian Matt Forde told a House of Commons Committee of impossible accommodation costs for working class comedians preventing them breaking though due to the 'Edinburgh Festival Model'. Matt Forde. Photo credit David Monteith-Hodge It seems we have a clash between left-wing politicians who wanted to sort 'over tourism' and the usually left of centre arts establishment complaining about the eminently predictable consequences. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The recent over-regulation of the Short Term Let Licensing has made tourist accommodation much scarcer in Edinburgh and pushed up costs, especially in August. It hasn't made the slightest difference to Edinburgh's 'housing emergency' and the cost of tourist accommodation will shortly jump further with the imposition of the Tourist Tax. So now Mr Lankester wants us to put all the Tourist Tax raised during the Fringe back into repaying the tax to performers and subsidising the pop-up venues that big promoters put on. The first of these is a circular argument and won't help in an accommodation market where supply is drying up and corporate hotel companies can't build rooms quick enough. The ability of the Fringe audience to find accommodation might become more of a problem first. The big promoters undoubtedly have costs putting on venues, but they increasingly recoup this in higher ticket prices and highly priced quinoa burger and beverage villages that discourage the spread of spend outwards to the local pubs and restaurants that are here all year round. They don't do this entirely philanthropically, there must be some profit to be made. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The promoters are also heavily built into the 'Edinburgh model' Matt Forde describes. But this model, that might see a performer booked for BBC TV or radio or a lucrative tour was chosen by those influential in booking comedy, not by Edinburgh or the Fringe. Mr Lankester did make two calls I'll support that would help residents, southern Scotland and visitors alike - the need for better mobile phone coverage in the Old Town and overnight train services to Glasgow each August. But these are things the mobile companies should be fixing and ScotRail should be enterprising enough to resolve if it makes financial sense, not a case for public subsidy. I suspect a grubby compromise will be found on the Tourist Tax spend. But really, the left on the council and the left-wing Scottish Parliament establishment need to decide what their policy priorities are. Right now, the Tourist Tax is trying to please all audiences at once and it just won't raise enough money to do that. Cllr Iain Whyte, Leader of the Conservative Group
The Herald Scotland
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Edinburgh Festival Fringe success is 'taken for granted'
Mr Lankester has set a new three million ticket sales target for the 78-year-old festival, which boasted more than 3700 shows in its programme last year. He suggested the event should expand its footprint across Edinburgh to ease pressure on the city centre, but highlighted the high costs involved in creating 'pop-up venues". Read more: Mr Lankester suggested the new tram link to Edinburgh's waterfront, which was launched nearly two years ago, could help spread the Fringe out more. He also called for trains to run throughout the night to Glasgow in August to make it easier to attend shows and offer an alternative to staying in Edinburgh during the festival. The Fringe broke the two million ticket sales barrier in 2014 and three million tickets were sold for the first time in 2019, when 3841 shows were staged, before the event fell victim to the pandemic in 2020. The Fringe Society has been under mounting pressure to address the increased costs faced by artists, performers, producers and venues in recent years. The festival has been valued at more than £200m for the city's economy but currently gets less than £2m in public funding from the Scottish and UK governments, and the city council. The Fringe Society is expected to lobby for more backing through an event through a recently-created taskforce involving the Scottish Government, the council and the city's main arts festivals. It was announced weeks after the Fringe Society received new core funding from the government for the first time in seven years. At the time the £300,000 funding deal was announced, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes suggested the festival 'does not neatly fit into funding streams available to other cultural organisations". The Fringe Society said it had been in talks with the government to develop a 'long-term sustainable funding model' for the Fringe. A Keep It Fringe Fund, which has provided bursaries worth £2500 to 180 artists to help them meet the cost of taking part in this year's Fringe, is running for a second year after being backed by the UK Government, although the future of the funding pot is uncertain. The Fringe Society, which oversees a £550,000 Made in Scotland programme paid for by the Scottish Government, receives just £75,000 in funding from the city council to help meet some of the costs involved in running street entertainment. To support our arts coverage and follow along with our Arts Correspondent, subscribe to a year of The Herald for only £20. "The Herald will be at the heart of debates about Scotland's cultural life, holding key decision-makers to account, fighting for a fair deal for the arts, and championing the brightest new talents in theatre, music, visual art, comedy, film, television and more." However, the charity was left furious last year when it failed to make the final stage of Creative Scotland's three-year funding programme. The quango has since been put under review by the Scottish Government. Mr Lankester said: 'Public entities and governments sometimes take for granted events like this. "In certain quarters, there is an assumption that the Fringe will just carry on and that it will always be there, regardless of how many slings and arrows get thrown in its direction. 'My message to the governments and the city council would be that I want them all to keep using the Fringe as an example of a success story, but I want them to back that up by looking for ways to invest in the broader eco-system. 'It's not about writing out cheques to the Fringe Society. It's about investing in the kind of things that keep our team awake at night and keep the venue operators awake at night. 'I would say to them: 'Don't throttle the golden goose – invest in it. Don't take us for granted, engage with us and find out how you can make a tangible difference and get rid of the speed bumps to staging this event and the issues which constrain the Fringe. 'I'm wary of going down too far down the growth road. I don't want the Fringe to sell six million tickets. I think three million is a great number to aim for, which would get us back to where we were before.' Mr Lankester recalled his experiences of 'disruption and chaos' when he had visited the Fringe while the city's tram network was being built. He said: 'I would love to see venue operators and entrepreneurs taking advantage of the fact that that corridor is now open. It would definitely take the pressure off a particular part of the city. It would need to happen organically. The Fringe Society can't dictate anything on venues. I have huge sympathy with their business models as they are taking a financial risk every year. 'I can see why there is a particular centre of gravity at the Fringe.A lot of it is to do with the availability of venues from Edinburgh University. They have fit-for-purpose spaces. It's hard to turn something else into a pop-up. 'But Fringe audiences are adventurous. They need to be to navigate this festival.' Mr Lankester said he believed an all-night rail service between Edinburgh Glasgow was a 'really viable alternative' to staying in the city during the Fringe. He added: 'It's a 45-minute journey. If you live and work in London you will be travelling between 30 and 60 minutes between your work and your home. 'If you are an artist, you would perhaps lose out slightly by now being in the energy of the city during the Fringe. But I also know from speaking to a lot of artists that they like escaping the bubble.' Mr Lankester insisted he was 'way more interested' in the experiences of an 'average Fringe-goer' than the scale or growth of the event. He added: 'The size of the Fringe can be a bit of a red herring sometimes. I realise why it is important to talk about the size of the event. Its impact is important and that needs to be managed. But I am way more interested in the individual experience. 'We can shout from the rooftops about the fact we have got more than 3000 shows, but your average Fringe-goer is only going to see about 10 of them. 'I really want to understand their experiences. What made them decide to come here, what was their experience of booking tickets, how did they make their accommodation choices, what was their experience on the ground, did they feel it was value for money or did they feel ripped off, not just from the Fringe but from the wider hospitality sector? 'Did they leave with a promise to themselves to come back and have they become advocates for the Fringe? That obviously what we would want.'
The Herald Scotland
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Edinburgh Festival Fringe chief seeks tourist tax boost
It is hoped some of the cash may also help meet Fringe promoters and producers meet some of the costs of creating 'pop-up' venues each summer, support free street events and pay for new infrastructure to boost mobile phone coverage in the city centre. Read in full: Edinburgh Festival Fringe success is 'taken for granted' Read more: Tony Lankester, newly-appointed chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the charity which oversees the festival, said it had secured a 'seat at the table' with the council for talks on how visitor levy income should be spent. He suggested the city should find a way of ensuring that all income raised from participants in the Fringe was reinvested in the event. (Image: PA) Mr Lankester, who previously ran the National Arts Festival in South Africa, warned the Fringe Society would be 'watching pretty carefully' to ensure that the council did not simply use income raised to replace its existing arts and culture budgets. Councillors voted in January to start the roll-out of the visitor levy for stays in the city from 24 July 2026, just days before next year's Fringe is due to get underway. However, under the council's current timetable, accommodation operators will have to apply the five per cent to all bookings made on or after 1 October this year. The council has predicted that the new levy, which is payable for a maximum of five consecutive nights, will generate up to £50m a year once it is up and running. It has pledged to use the levy to 'sustain Edinburgh's status as one of the world's greatest cultural and heritage cities.' Mr Lankester said: 'When discussions are happening on the visitor levy, the Fringe's voice is really important. 'We are not looking to the visitor levy as a way of feathering our nest or benefiting hugely financially from it. 'We might make an ask for certain projects, such as around our street events, but by and large our seat at the table will be to lobby for investment in the kind of things that are genuinely beneficial to the whole event. 'From the figures I have seen, around £1.1m is expected to be raised directly from participants in the Fringe. 'At the very least, we would like to see that £1.1m come back to the Fringe in a way that enhances their experience, such as a rebate for performers.' Under the council's proposals – which will affect hotels, self-catering properties and short-term lets – 35 per cent of the funds raised will be ringfenced for 'culture, heritage and events.' However detailed spending proposals are not expected to be published by the council until later this year. To support our arts coverage and follow along with our Arts Correspondent, subscribe to a year of The Herald for only £20. "The Herald will be at the heart of debates about Scotland's cultural life, holding key decision-makers to account, fighting for a fair deal for the arts, and championing the brightest new talents in theatre, music, visual art, comedy, film, television and more." Mr Lankester added: 'We will be making a submission to the council, which will be crafted in full consultation with the venues. We will be asking them for ideas and what they want us to lobby for. 'The visitor levy is not meant to replace the council's existing arts and culture budget. We will be watching that pretty carefully.' Mr Lankester said he believed a 'silent majority' of Edinburgh's residents were 'proud of the Fringe and love the fact it is there ever year. He said: 'They participate in the Fringe, they engage with it, and they will talk about it to their friends and family as something they are proud of. There are people who don't like it. We need to be pragmatic about that, understand why they don't like it and see what we can do to mitigate that. 'I would love for 100 per cent of people who live in Edinburgh to love the Fringe. Is that realistic? Probably not. 'But if there are genuine concerns about the Fringe and it is negatively impacting on someone's life I want to know about that and be able to understand what we can do differently.'
BBC News
16-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Crewe winger Lankester to miss remainder of season
Crewe Alexandra winger Jack Lankester will miss the remaining matches of the season after underdoing knee surgery. Lankester, 25, went off midway through the second half of the 2-0 defeat at Bradford City on 5 April. He has scored seven times this season for Lee Bell's side, who are 11th in the League Two table and still in with a chance of a play-off place. "I feel for Jack. He had the shot at Bradford that hit the post and he twisted his knee," manager Bell told the club website. , external"He's had a meniscus tear operated on, which these days are pretty routine. It's gone really well, so we're looking to get him back for pre-season. "He's a terrific player who makes such a difference to us."
