Latest news with #TonyLankester
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Whinging Edinburgh Fringe boss wants BAN on mega gigs like Oasis at Murrayfield
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AN Edinburgh Fringe chief has called for huge concerts like Oasis to be banned in August to "protect" the annual festivities. The Brit Pop icons attracted more than 200,000 fans to Murrayfield Stadium over three nights this month. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester has called for an end to huge concerts in Edinburgh in August Credit: Edinburgh Fringe 4 Over 200,000 Oasis fans flocked to Murrayfield for the band's three Murrayfield shows Credit: Mark Ferguson 4 Liam Gallagher claimed the band and their fans have pumped "£3billion" into the city Credit: Getty Rock legends AC/DC will also take to the stage in the capital next week. But the Fringe Society said such events are placing "unnecessary pressure" on the city during the long-running cultural extravaganza. Tony Lankester, chief executive of the Fringe Society, also blamed the Murrayfield shows for "massively increasing" accommodation and travel costs. He told The Herald: "Having large concerts staged at the same time as the Fringe is not something we would actively encourage. "We don't believe it results in an optimal experience for either concert-goers or Fringe-goers, putting, as it does, unnecessary pressure on an already busy city. "One consequence is that it results in massively increased demand for travel and accommodation which drives up the prices for everyone, including the concert organisers and fans. "However, decisions around the timing of large touring concerts are largely outside of the control of the Fringe, the city, and even the concert promoters. "If concerts are planned during August in future we will do what we can to protect the Fringe experience, and find ways of working with all stakeholders, including the concert organisers, to make the experience as positive as possible." The Fringe Society claimed on-the-day ticket sales plummeted by £150,000 last weekend compared to the same three days last year. Mr Lankester added: "I think the drop in on-the-day sales over the weekend is totally down to Oasis. Joyous moment Scots schoolgirl dances to favourite Oasis song outside packed Murrayfield gig "Prior to this weekend, our advance and on-the-day sales have been up for every day of the festival so far." Last night, Oasis wrapped up the Scottish leg of their huge comeback tour. Frontman Liam Gallagher took another pop at City of Edinburgh Council bosses. He also claimed the band and their fans had pumped £3billion into the capital over the three shows. Gallagher said: "£3billion we've brought into this city over the past five days. And that's between you and us. Three billion f quid. "You won't see f*** all, because they'll rob it and spread it among their posh ugly mates. "Still waiting for our apology, bring it on down, you c***s." It was the third time the iconic singer had blasted the council during the three concerts. On Friday evening, he demanded an apology from the council and branded officials "f*****g slags." On Saturday night, the Cigarettes And Alcohol singer aimed another sweary rant at the local authority, saying they have "the cheek" to make comments about his fans. We previously told how council officials claimed that Oasis fans would mainly be "rowdy", "middle-aged men" who "take up more room" and will drink to "medium to high intoxication". They added that they thought the revellers would pose a risk to the capital's Fringe. He wasn't the only one to call out the council for their comments. Richard Ashcroft, who was one of the acts supporting the brothers, also took a swipe at officials. As he warmed up the crowd on Friday night, he took a dig at town hall execs, which was met with cheers by fans. The Verve frontman said: "I think the council need to take a picture of this crowd.'
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Fringe urges Murrayfield rethink over impact of Oasis shows
Speaking ahead of the final Oasis concert at Murrayfield and an AC/DC show next week, chief executive Tony Lankester said the festival wanted to do everything possible to 'protect the Fringe experience' in August. Read more: The Fringe Society has also questioned claims that the three Oasis shows will have a significant spin-off for Edinburgh's economy. The longest-running venue operator at the Fringe has claimed they lost almost £150,000 worth of on-the-day sales over the weekend compared to the same three days in 2024 due to the staging of the 68,000-capacity Oasis concerts on Friday and Saturday. Oasis sold out three reunion shows at Murrayfield this month. (Image: Newsquest) However the promoters of the Oasis concerts said it was 'undeniable' that many of the band's fans have also been taking in 'multiple' Fringe shows while they are in the city. They have called for affordable accommodation to be 'ringfenced' for Fringe performers in future years as they warned that the cost of visiting the city had become 'very high' in August. The announcement of the Oasis shows last August – the first ever Murrayfield concerts to coincide with the Fringe - sparked immediate concern from venue operators about their impact on the costs of bringing shows to the city. The one-off show by AC/DC, which is the only UK date on a European tour, was announced in February. However this year's Fringe is still expected to be one of the biggest staged in the history of the event. A record 3853 shows have now been registered to date, compared to the previous record-breaking year in 2019, the last festival before the Covid pandemic forced the cancellation of the event. The number of individual performances is lagging behind 2019, with 54,474 registered to date compared to 59,600 six years ago, when there were 323 venues in the programme compared to 265 in this year's line-up. Both the Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival have reported a year-on-year rise in ticket sales. Mr Lankester told The Herald: ''Having large concerts staged at the same time of the Fringe is not something we would actively encourage. 'We don't believe it results in an optimal experience for either concertgoers or Fringegoers, putting, as it does, unnecessary pressure on an already busy city. 'One consequence is that it results in massively increased demand for travel and accommodation which drives up the prices for everyone, including the concert organisers and fans. 'However decisions around the timing of large touring concerts are largely outside of the control of the Fringe, the city and even the concert promoters. 'If concerts are planned during August in future we will do what we can to protect the Fringe experience, and find ways of working with all stakeholders, including the concert organisers, to make the experience as positive as possible.' William Burdett-Coutts, artistic director of Assembly, which he founded in 1981, said on-the-day ticket sales at his venues were down by more than 9000 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday compared to the same weekend last year, with ticket sales down 16, 15 and six per cent on each day. He told The Herald: 'I think the drop in on-the-day sales over the weekend is totally down to Oasis. 'Prior to this weekend, our advance and on-the-day sales have been up for every day of the festival so far. 'Our venues were a lo quiet than normal over the weekend. We would normally sell out every show on a Saturday night and we didn't. 'I think a lot of people who would normally go to see Fringe shows went to see Oasis. But I think a bigger number of people were deterred from coming into the city because Oasis were on. 'One element was the price of accommodation going mad. The other was transport. People were concerned that it would be much hard to get in and out of town. It like a week day at the Fringe, not a weekend, on Friday and Saturday, to be honest.' Speaking ahead of the third Oasis gig, Geoff Ellis, chief executive of promoters DF Concerts, told The Herald: 'The shows have gone incredibly well on all fronts. 'The band are sounding better than ever with the loudest, most passionate and euphoric audiences that I have ever seen. 'It is also an undeniable fact that many Oasis fans have attended multiple Fringe shows too. 'I've seen it myself walking around the city before and after the concerts. 'I have talked to people who have come to Scotland for Oasis and are also taking in the fringe and EIF too – including personal friends of mine from Manchester who have never attended the Fringe before but will be back again. 'There is a great atmosphere in the city with all the visitors mixing well and enjoying Edinburgh. 'I agree the accommodation cost is an issue. Our hotels are double what we paid last year and the prices are very high in August for all visitors coming to the city, whatever the reason. 'There probably needs to be a solution for Fringe performers to get some accommodation ringfenced at reasonable rates. 'At the end of the day, fans of culture are not all in their own silos, many are interested in - and go to - various events, not just one artform. 'It would actually be cheaper for major artists to come to Edinburgh outwith August due to the higher costs of staging concerts in the city in August. 'however Edinburgh and Scotland has to fit in with international tours. 'It's amazing that Scotland (and Edinburgh) got 3 Oasis shows, the only AC/DC show in the UK, the only headline concerts with Chappell Roan in Europe and Sam Fender into the bargain too.' The benefits of staging the Murrayfield concerts in Edinburgh have been hotly debated by tourism and festival leaders in recent days. Marc Crothall, chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, shared details on social media of research which suggested the three-night run by Oasis in the city would be worth £136m to the city. Novuna Personal Finance predicted fans would spend £32m on food and drink, £6.2m on accommodation and £27.5m on 'shopping and leisure' while they are in the city. Susan Russell, head of marketing and communications at the Fringe Society, said: 'Project economic spend doesn't take into account potential diverted spend from long-standing major events already happening in Edinburgh during this month's gigs. 'It's misleading to say that it's 'new' impact when significant economic benefit (likely higher to the city as the average length of stay for the festivals is four nights) was already here. 'Music promoters would drive much more economic benefit to the city (and Scotland) if these were scheduled outwith August.' However Jo Buckley, chief executive of the Dunard Centre, the project to create Edinburgh's first purpose-built concert hall for a century, said: 'Setting aside inflated accommodation prices, the economic impact tells a powerful story. 'But this is also 200,000 people sharing in the joy of live music over three days, something whose benefits are hard to measure but I believe are just as powerful.'
The Herald Scotland
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Festivals urged to book a year ahead to avoid tourist tax
Under the council's plans for the introduction of the new levy, the summer festivals, their performers and audiences will be among the first to be affected by the charging regime. It will apply to stays in the city from July 24 next year, just days before the main 2026 festivals season is due to get underway. Read more: Thousands of advance bookings are expected to be made over the next two months by festivals and venue operators to try to keep their costs down by avoiding the first year of the levy. However Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester admitted many Fringe performers and companies were not likely to be book accommodation until next year, if they have not committed to return to the event or are unsure when they will be in the city. Tony Lankester is chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. (Image: Gordon Terris) The Fringe Society has estimated that artists and other festival workers could generate around £1.1m for the visitor levy when it is up and running. Much more will be generated during August by visitors to the city for the festivals, which are expected to attract an audience well in excess of three million over the next few weeks. Edinburgh's visitor levy will apply to booking for stays in the city from July 24 next year - if they are made after the start of October. (Image: KEN JACK/ Getty Images) However the council has not yet set out what proportion of visitor levy income will be reinvested in the festivals and what they can spend it on. Edinburgh councillors gave the final approval earlier this year for the introduction of a visitor levy scheme which is expected to generate up to £50m a year by 2028-29. Under the 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.' The council last month unveiled the membership of an independent forum which will make recommendations to the council on how the income raised should be spent, although final decisions on initial spending plans will be taken by councillors later this year. Lori Anderson, director of Festivals Edinburgh, the group formed nearly 20 years ago as part of efforts to protect and develop the city's world-leading reputation for cultural events, will be representing them on the visitor levy forum, which is also includes tourism industry leaders, union representatives, community groups and heritage campaigners. Ms Anderson said: 'There is currently a window before the visitor levy will apply. We have recommended to the festivals that they try to book accommodation earlier. 'A number of them will have to pay the visitor levy for those artists whose accommodation they support. 'We have given them the dates and advised them that it if they are in a position to make advance bookings it might be advantageous to try to do that.' Mr Lankester said: 'The council are not going to start charging it until October. 'A lot of people are going to be book now for next year's accommodation so they won't have to pay the visitor levy. 'The pot in the first year definitely won't be as big as it is projected to be in future years as a big chunk of advance bookings won't contribute to it. 'I'm sure many people won't book until next year because they won't know yet if they are coming to the Fringe or which dates they will be coming on. 'But I would suspect that some of the venues and other festivals are block-booking now or will block-book before the visitor levy kicks in. 'If the Fringe Society was a business which booked accommodation, which we don't, we would absolutely be doing that.' Ms Anderson said she expected the festivals to 'reap the benefits' of the visitor levy in future years as long as they are made a 'priority' for investment by the city council. She added: 'The festivals are obviously going to have to pay more for their accommodation costs to pay for the visitor levy. 'We would hope their way would be some mechanism or way for that investment to be recovered by the festivals. They are one of the huge drivers of visitors in the city. We would hope to see that that investment could filter its way back to those that are driving tourism in the city. 'We really hope that the festivals are a priority for the visitor levy, but that hasn't been decided yet. 'It is a really complex scheme. The council officials are working hard on it. They have a timetable to meet and they need to ensure that the scheme works at the beginning of the cycle. 'The festivals have been on standstill funding (from the council) for a long time. The visitor levy is an opportunity to really invest in sustaining them, and allowing them to grow and develop. 'The key thing about the visitor levy is that it's new money. There's unlikely to be any new moment from anywhere else. If the visitor levy is here to stay, it is an opportunity to do some really interesting long-term planning. 'It is important there is a strategic approach which really benefits the city, really interesting projects can be delivered which make the city more welcoming for visitors and residents, and there can be infrastructure improvements and all manner of other things done which will help to support and provide the conditions which the festivals and others in the tourism sector need. 'The festivals would really like to see investment so that they can have some stability, develop their creative content and commissioning, and really innovate in what they offer.' Mr Lankester added: 'We believe Fringe artists will be contributing around £1.1m to the visitor levy pot. 'Those artists are, by and large, not publicly funded. For us, it's about how we bring some of that money back to those artists. Mr Lankester said he found it 'interesting' that council officials had already proposed that £1.7m from the visitor levy pot be ringfenced to help pay for the Tour de France coming to [[Edinburgh]] for the first time when the Fringe had not been allocated any funding. He added: 'There is a clear process and a visitor levy forum. But it doesn't actually make decisions, it only advises. It will be making recommendations, which councillors can either choose to follow or ignore. 'The bits of the moving parts of the visitor levy that they are trying to get their heads round now are around collection mechanisms more than anything else. 'No-one knows yet how the visitor levy is going to play out. But it is definitely not going to be a panacea that solves everything in the city. A lot of people are hoping it is going to be. But it absolutely won't.'
Powys County Times
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Fringe organisers call on audiences to ‘dare to discover' as festival begins
The 2025 Edinburgh Fringe festival opens on Friday, with the organisers calling on audiences to 'dare to discover' the thousands of shows on offer over the next four weeks. This year's edition of the world-famous festival runs from August 1 to 25, and will feature 54,474 performances and 3,853 shows – including 1,118 shows from Scotland, and 829 from Edinburgh itself. The festival will see artists from 63 countries taking to the stage at venues across the capital, in a programme that includes comedy, theatre, dance, musicals and children's shows. The Fringe street events programme begins at 11am on Friday and will run every day until August 24, with performers putting on shows on the Royal Mile and the Mound. The Fringe will run alongside the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), which runs until August 24 and will see more than 2,000 internationally renowned artists from across 42 countries putting on more than 133 performances across the city. With its theme of The Truth We Seek, the organisers of the EIF say it offers 'the possibility of truly transformational encounters' across its richly varied programme of music, theatre, opera and dance. The organisers of both festivals have said ticket prices have been set to make them accessible to as many people as possible. The Fringe has an average ticket price of just over £13, while half the tickets for the EIF will be sold at £30 or less, and £10 tickets have been made available for every performance. Tony Lankester, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, thanked all those who are helping make this year's festival happen. 'This is my first Fringe as the Fringe Society's chief executive, so this is an incredibly exciting moment – I've attended the Edinburgh Fringe before, but never in such a front-row seat,' he said. 'It's taken a lot of people a lot of work to get us to this moment, so I'd like to thank everyone who has a hand in making it happen. 'That includes the venues around the city; the local businesses, stakeholders and officials; the wonderfully warm and welcoming people of Edinburgh; the members of the media and the arts industry who make this festival such an important part of the calendar for participating artists; and of course the indefatigable and undefeatable artists themselves, without whom there wouldn't be a Fringe at all. 'We're so grateful that you've chosen to be here this year, and I encourage any and all prospective audience members to go out, enjoy the festival and dare to discover the amazing work on offer.' Meanwhile, EIF director Nicola Benedetti said this year's International Festival is a 'bold invitation to question the world around us'. 'We're honoured to welcome artists and audiences from across the globe to Edinburgh, and we remain deeply committed to making that experience more accessible than ever', she said. 'Whether you're here for an intimate recital, a powerful play, a mass sing-along or an eight-hour choral epic, you'll encounter connection, curiosity, and the power of great art to shift perspectives. 'This year's Festival offers the possibility of truly transformational encounters and I look forward to sharing this with you.' The Fringe festival line-up includes 501 more shows than are included in the printed programme, due to some having been registered since the programme launch on June 3. The full Fringe programme can be found at and the official Fringe app.
The National
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Edinburgh Fringe begins as organisers say ‘dare to discover'
This year's edition of the world-famous festival runs from August 1 to 25, and will feature 54,474 performances and 3853 shows – including 1118 shows from Scotland, and 829 from Edinburgh itself. The festival will see artists from 63 countries taking to the stage at venues across the capital, in a programme that includes comedy, theatre, dance, musicals and children's shows. READ MORE: What items are banned from the Chappell Roan gigs at the Royal Highland Centre? The Fringe street events programme begins at 11am on Friday and will run every day until August 24, with performers putting on shows on the Royal Mile and the Mound. The Fringe will run alongside the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), which runs until August 24 and will see more than 2000 internationally renowned artists from across 42 countries putting on more than 133 performances across the city. With its theme of The Truth We Seek, the organisers of the EIF say it offers 'the possibility of truly transformational encounters' across its richly varied programme of music, theatre, opera and dance. The organisers of both festivals have said ticket prices have been set to make them accessible to as many people as possible. The Fringe has an average ticket price of just over £13, while half the tickets for the EIF will be sold at £30 or less, and £10 tickets have been made available for every performance. Tony Lankester, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, thanked all those who are helping make this year's festival happen. 'This is my first Fringe as the Fringe Society's chief executive, so this is an incredibly exciting moment – I've attended the Edinburgh Fringe before, but never in such a front-row seat,' he said. 'It's taken a lot of people a lot of work to get us to this moment, so I'd like to thank everyone who has a hand in making it happen. 'That includes the venues around the city; the local businesses, stakeholders and officials; the wonderfully warm and welcoming people of [[Edinburgh]]; the members of the media and the arts industry who make this festival such an important part of the calendar for participating artists; and of course the indefatigable and undefeatable artists themselves, without whom there wouldn't be a Fringe at all. 'We're so grateful that you've chosen to be here this year, and I encourage any and all prospective audience members to go out, enjoy the festival and dare to discover the amazing work on offer.' Meanwhile, EIF director Nicola Benedetti said this year's International Festival is a 'bold invitation to question the world around us'. 'We're honoured to welcome artists and audiences from across the globe to Edinburgh, and we remain deeply committed to making that experience more accessible than ever', she said. READ MORE: People are using slurs we thought we left in the 70s, why inclusive education matters 'Whether you're here for an intimate recital, a powerful play, a mass sing-along or an eight-hour choral epic, you'll encounter connection, curiosity, and the power of great art to shift perspectives. 'This year's Festival offers the possibility of truly transformational encounters and I look forward to sharing this with you.' The Fringe festival line-up includes 501 more shows than are included in the printed programme, due to some having been registered since the programme launch on June 3. The full Fringe programme can be found on the festival's website and the official Fringe app. The EIF programme can be found here.
