Latest news with #PeterBuckleyHill
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh Festival Fringe artist fund challenged for 'violation of open access principles'
Keep It Fringe has distributed £1 million in grants since 2023. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, 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... The founder of the Free Fringe has lodged a motion against a grant fund operated by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, claiming it goes against the organisation's 'level playing field ethos'. In a movement put forward to the Fringe Society's annual general meeting (AGM), Peter Buckley Hill said the Keep It Fringe fund, launched by a donation from Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2023, was 'biased'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The fund, which has distributed £1 million to UK-based artists at the festival, has since been supported by a UK government grant. Mr Buckley Hill wrote: 'The custom and rule of the Edinburgh Fringe was: if you can get a venue, you can perform at the Fringe. The Fringe Office had no role in the selection of who performed and who did not. That was the venue providers' job. 'The playing field was never level: money always talks. But the principle of a Fringe is to keep the field as level as possible. You can bring your show. Once you have a venue, you're equal. Only the public can judge you. But this has changed since Covid.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He added: 'If Show X gets a £2,000 grant and you do not, you are at a big disadvantage. Even before you start. It's biased against you and somebody has made that judgement. Street performers entertain the crowds on the Royal Mile during the Fringe. Picture: Jane Barlow 'The Fringe Office was not put in place to discriminate in favour of one show and against another. It doesn't have the mandate and it doesn't have the expertise.' The Fringe Society said funders would be 'very unlikely to support investment without criteria' and that limiting its ability to distribute funding would lead to 'greater inequality'. The statement said: 'The Fringe Society's aim is to ensure limited funding for culture is directed to the Fringe by any means possible, and for the Fringe Society to use its fundraising skills and capacity to support all artists and venues who take part.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The body added: 'The Fringe Society acts, in all these instances, as an impartial, arms-length administrator of the available grants. In each case it puts in place rigorous principles, signed off by the relevant funder, to ensure that the society itself is not making artistic or other subjective assessments of requests for support.'
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Fringe funding fear raised over 'level playing field' demand
Peter Buckley Hill wants to ensure there is a 'level playing field' for participants rather than the Fringe Society 'discriminate' in favour of a number of shows in its programme. Read more: Mr Buckley Hill is urging members of the society to ensure funding is distribute 'equally and equitably' to acts and performers in the programme, which features more than 3900 shows this month, the highest tally in the event's history. The Fringe Society, which has overseen the running of the festival since 1958, has been responsible for the distribution of more than £1m in Scottish and UK government funding for artists and companies appearing in this year's event. Ruxandra Cantir's show Pickled Republic is part of the Scottish Government-funded Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Andy Catlin) Proposals to try to secure new investment for the next few years are expected to be put forward by Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester, who took over the role in the spring, before the end of the year. However the Fringe Society has warned it would be 'very unlikely' to secure investment from funders unless there is strict criteria in place. Singer-songwriter Karine Polwart's Fringe show Windblown was funded by the Scottish Government this month. (Image: MIHAELA BODLOVIC) It has insisted it has always been an 'arms-length administrator' of public funding and has put 'rigorous' measures in place to ensure the society is not making 'artistic or other subjective assessments' on funding applications, including bringing in independent assessors for review panels. The Fringe Society has suggested that Buckley Hill's proposals, which are expected to be voting on at the annual general meeting of the Fringe Society, would lead to 'greater inequality' the festival. It has told members of the society that affordability was 'widely agreed to be the biggest risk of Fringe's success and accessibility, and arguably the greatest issue facing artists and venues.' Buckley Hill is widely credited with coming up with the idea of the 'Free Fringe,' a strand of the festival which allows audience free access to shows but encourages them to make a donation to the performer on the way out the venue. The motion he has put forward for the Fringe Society AGM states that 'the principle of open access' remains at the heart of the Fringe' and argues that the charity has 'no power or mandate to 'distinguish between the artistic quality of shows, or the value of venues.' Posting on social media, Buckley Hill said the distribution of grants adjudicated by 'experts' brought in by the Fringe Society was a 'violation' of the open access principle. He added: 'The custom and rule of the Edinburgh Fringe was: if you can get a venue, you can perform at the Fringe. The Fringe Office had no role in the selection of who performed and who did not. That was the venue providers' job. 'The playing field was never level: money always talks. But the principle of a Fringe is to keep the field as level as possible. You can bring your show. Once you have a venue, you're equal. Only the public can judge you. 'The Fringe Office was not put in place to discriminate in favour of one show and against another. It doesn't have the mandate, and it doesn't have the expertise. 'We all, I hope, want to see the Fringe represent all groups and classes in Scotland, the UK and the world. And perhaps these grants might have been intended to help the poorest. But that's not how they're being used. How much better it would be to make it easier and cheaper for all, across the board.' In a response published ahead of the AGM, the Fringe Society states that disbursing funds for the wider benefit of the community was 'core' to its aims and objections. The Fringe Society added: 'The Fringe Society has, both historically and currently, found itself in a position where a funder or donor has made funds available for wider disbursement, and has attached certain conditions or criteria for such disbursement. Typically this is public sector investment. 'The Fringe Society acts, in all these instances, as an impartial, arms-length administrator of the available grants. In each case it puts in place rigorous principles, signed off by the relevant funder, to ensure that the society itself is not making artistic or other subjective assessments of requests for support. 'This objective process has enabled the society to pass significant support on to the broader Fringe community in a way that is, we believe, fair and defensible. 'The Fringe Society's aim is to ensure limited funding for culture is directed to the Fringe by any means possible, and for the Fringe Society to use it's fundraising skills and capacity to support all artists and venues who take part. 'Funders would be very unlikely to support investment without criteria, and if funding was secured directly by the venue or artist, those who have greater capacity and experience in securing public investment would likely benefit more, creating greater inequality. 'The Fringe Society recognises, however, that there is also more that can be done to ensure the artists and venues who make the Fringe happen are engaged and can inform the processes and criteria, and would welcome conversations and workshops on how we ensure any influence over funding or decision making is in the best interests of the widest range of artists.' The Herald has teamed up with to make the purchase of tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe so much easier. To buy tickets, please click here.
Scotsman
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Edinburgh festivals diary: the divided Fringe means we must celebrate the weird and wonderful grassroots
Guest diarist Kate Copstick is exasperated at the divided Fringe but eventually finds her happy place Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, 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... More than ever the Fringe is, it seems to me, dividing. I only have to take a stroll along Infirmary Street, past the imposing edifice that will soon become several hundred thousand pounds' worth of new Fringe Society headquarters, to see exactly what is going wrong. And it is angering and depressing in equal measure. However, down on the Cowgate, I am flyered by an absolutely charming elderly man who encourages me to 'come and see my daughter's Shit Show', points me at the venue and hands me one of the Free Fringe's Wee Blue Books. And I am at the Fringe again. Talking of which, by the time you read this the Fringe Society's AGM will have considered Peter Buckley Hill's motion to level the playing field by making the £2000 grants which they award (for the reasons only known to their chosen team of adjudicators) means tested in some way. Fingers crossed. The Fringe Society will move to new offices on Infirmary Street next year | Supplied But it is great to see that, despite everything against them, to say nothing of on top of them, grassroots manage to keep growing and the weird and the wonderful keep weirding and filling us with wonder. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Make sure you keep up to date with Arts and Culture news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here. The tome of the brochure doesn't really tell their story – you have to go native and even talk to strangers in strange places, something which might be a new experience to Londoners, but it works. And it is the Fringe, where you really should be seeing more than 'him off the telly' doing work in progress. I have found that avoiding any show with the word 'journey' in the description helps narrow the field considerably this year. Similarly the self-diagnosed victims of acronymic conditions and anyone predicating their comedy hour on their 'struggle'. The rest of my year is spent in Kenya rescuing women and girls from unimaginable abuse, and so my bar for 'struggle' is set quite high. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As I sit writing this in a pleasant venue cafe, however, I am given a stark lesson in quite how fragile the soul of a comedian can be, as I am informed that the performer I have come to review 'would not be comfortable' with me in his audience because I gave him a bad review last year. But, such is the Fringe, there are always other shows. Pay What You Want does not make you a second-class comedy fan The advent of Pay What You Want in some places which now also offer normal ticketed seats, while the word 'Free' in still in the title of the organisation running the venue, is messy at best. Those of us in the PWYW queue are frequently treated very much like second-class comedy fans on the way in and instructed by the comedian that 'this show is worth £15' (I am quoting from one particular show) on the way out. The PBH Free Fringe is, of course, still free. Peter Buckley Hill - founder of PBH Free Fringe -has been campaigning for Fringe Society grants to be means tested | Contributed
Scotsman
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Readers' letters: Give the Fringe's favourite uncle the freedom of the city
A reader says it's high time the founder of the Free Fringe got official recognition Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, 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... On Tuesday on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, I bumped into, and then had the honour of chatting for half an hour with, the icon that is Peter Buckley Hill. Peter who? Peter Buckley Hill, the man who in 1995 with just one show, Peter Buckley Hill and Some Comedians, single-handedly created PBH's Free Fringe, that revolutionary initiative which offers free stages to performers, free shows to punters – theoretically free, but stick in the bucket what you can afford – and an endless stream of customers to hundreds of independent local businesses who otherwise would have lost trade to obscenely priced pop-up bars and food vans. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Millions of people have been entertained by the PBH Free Fringe, many thousands of whom have then been inspired to bring their own productions to Edinburgh. Additionally, those punters have also taken home a memory of both the Fringe and the city which they would not otherwise have had, as will be recalled by everyone who ever attended or performed at one of Peter's legendary, riotous, chaotic, shambolic, hysterical, joyous and always – always – open and welcoming gigs at the Canons' Gait pub. Peter Buckley Hill created the Free Fringe in 1996 This year alone PBH is responsible for more than 600 free shows in 43 spaces. In an increasingly more corporate, elite and financially challenging environment for performers and punters alike, Peter has, year in year out, delivered the most successful outreach programme across the entire British arts scene. Somewhere out there, the Edinburgh Fringe still has a soul and it is Peter Buckley Hill. Peter's getting old. I noticed that, and he acknowledged it. It's now time to thank – officially – the Fringe's most beloved, idiosyncratic, visionary, empathetic, iconoclastic, benign old hippy. So, come on Edinburgh City Council, how about giving the Fringe's favourite uncle the Freedom of the City? Ross Smith, London Land tax Ian Petrie (Letters, 7 August) argues for a local tax based on land values rather than property. A laudable argument, but as a resident of Edinburgh (my home city) he will be aware that it is famous for its tenements. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad How would you appraise them? Possibly a share of the building's imprint. But it would need to be executed in such a way as not to be unfair to those in detached properties. Something that could fall under the law of unintended consequences. C Lowson, Fareham, Hants Energy resilience According to the message issued by SSEN on 5 August, 'Storm Floris has been the most damaging summer storm in recent memory'. It impacted severely on the electricity network throughout the North of Scotland, with supplies to thousands of households being disrupted. Sadly, this has become an all-too-frequent occurrence in recent times and it is very obvious that there is a complete lack of protection and resilience built into our power distribution systems throughout Scotland. Electricity consumers in Scotland pay approximately 56p every day in standing charges. With more than two million households paying this charge each day the total capital being raised off the backs of bill payers is in the region of £500 million annually. The whole point of the standing charge is to provide capital to repair and maintain the network. It seems that wires on matchsticks do not make for a particularly resilient system in the context of stormy weather. The experience of people living in the North East in recent times tells us that the storms are not only becoming more frequent but they are also growing stronger. Instead of standing charge money being used to fund new pylons to export Scotland's electricity it is time that the money our bill payers contribute is used to create a resilient distribution network. Cables should be buried; stronger masts constructed when they need to be carried and sound engineering applied to what is a fundamentally simple problem so that Scotland's citizens don't need to worry about the power going off every single time there is a storm. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Energy is a matter which is reserved to Westminster. As electricity consumers in Scotland have learned in recent months, Westminster is not prepared to act on our behalf if it considers that it may have an adverse impact on consumers in England. The time is now ripe for matters related to the generation and delivery of energy in Scotland to be dealt with at Holyrood by the elected government of Scotland. Jim Finlayson, Banchory, Aberdeenshire Renewables banking on wind power is the Achilles heel of our present dash to save our world from calamity. The cost of scaling up wind power in terms of the impact on our environment is such that our country will be left with little countryside that will not be impacted in a negative way. As an example, here in Scotland – and many hill walkers can testify to this – there are few areas at present whether travelling to or actually walking, the views of pylons and wind turbines do not intrude massively. It is highly likely that our present leaders have seriously underestimated future energy needs as we move toward the requirements of robotics, data centres, future manufacturing needs and travel, let alone household and office needs. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Imagine how this country would look with the present relatively small number of green power turbines and pylons then scale that up in your mind by at least a factor of four for wind turbines, two for much bigger pylons, ten for battery storage plus the infrastructure to reach housing and offices. It is the scaling up of energy production to cope with future energy needs that should be driving where we look to source energy. At present, nuclear is only proposed as a base load back up to wind when the scale-up factor of nuclear should be screaming loud and clear 'choose me'. The obvious win for nuclear is that small generators can be located closer to the customer, reducing energy transport infrastructure such as pylons with the other benefit of not requiring back-up infrastructure in case of failure. Present-day nuclear generation has the ability to reuse waste, which reduces the waste element considerably to the extent that our present nuclear waste, as I understand it, has become an asset rather than liability. What's not to like? A Lewis, Coylton, South Ayrshire Lose-lose strategy Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Both SNP and Labour have retained their presumption that there will be no new oil and gas developments in Scotland or in the rest of the UK. Ed Miliband, the minister mostly responsible for these decisions, has a very obvious and strong antagonism towards fossil fuels; many, with reason, feel he is an eco-zealot. These two parties are in the main responsible for the loss of 13,000 oil and gas jobs in the past year alone. Their attitude surely will leave the country almost totally reliant on intermittent and unreliable and environmentally questionable wind as well as expensive foreign oil and gas imports while also shedding highly skilled jobs at an alarming rate. In the meantime, Norway is cashing in and filling the gap left by the SNP-Labour's dangerously premature abandonment of our precious energy resources, decades too early and sadly for no other reason than posturing. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh No surprise It should come as little surprise that one of the more intelligent members of the SNP, Kate Forbes, has decided to stand down from the Scottish Parliament. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She has clearly recognised the inability of the First Minister to deliver basic public services for the people of Scotland as she did during the SNP leadership election in 2023 when she was openly critical of the track record of Humza Yousaf. It was also during that leadership election process that she endured some poisonous rhetoric from within her party relating to her views on abortion and gay marriage. One might fairly come to the conclusion that her decision to step down from the discredited Scottish Parliament has much to do with her faith as well as her intelligence in abandoning a sinking ship. Richard Allison, Edinburgh Bright light dims Yet another bright light in Holyrood goes dimmer, as the Deputy First Minister has announced her intention to stand down from politics in 2026. Kate Forbes MSP certainly lit up the Chamber back in 2020 as the first female to deliver a Scottish Budget (at short notice) and she brought ability and commitment to her new-found position. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To be an MSP in such a rural and geographically taxing constituency (Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch) would be difficult for anyone, but for a mother with a young child it presents a scenario which raises questions. Should the boundary commission be considering geographically halving the constituency to make it manageable, should parliament be looking for future possibilities for such a geographically spread constituency? After all, the make-up of constituencies should not be solely dependent on achieving the number of voters, it should be manageable in the interest of constituents and representatives. Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk Vocabulary lesson I would like to thank Mark Boyle (Letters, 6 August) for introducing me to a wonderful word I have never heard in all my 83 years – snollygoster: an unprincipled person, especially a politician. Rosemary Shaw, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman
