International flavour of Festival could be cutBy Edd McCracken Arts Correspondent
This year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival could be the last in its current guise as a truly open-access, diverse and global celebration of the arts thanks to forthcoming visa regulations that could prohibit hundreds of international acts from taking part, according to the festival's director.
Jon Morgan said his greatest worry was not the much-publicised potential of a breakaway comedy festival, but visa laws which come into effect in the autumn. Under the new regulations all performers from non-EU countries will have to pay for visas (previously US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders were exempt) and must have a sponsor in the UK.
Nearly 20% of performing companies at last year's Fringe came from outside the EU. The Fringe Society fears the additional administration and cost might make international companies decide against coming to Edinburgh next August, robbing the city of hits such as last year's biggest show, Argentina's Fuerzabruta.
"It's very worrying," said Morgan. "There is a real concern that presence of international artists from outside the EU will be diminished in future years, which will be a real shame."
He specifically highlighted the threat to one of the Fringe's most emblematic and loved genres: American high school theatre troupes.
"There are 2000 US high school students who come every year to perform," he said. "It's now going to cost them £100 per performer to bring them. And they already have to fundraise to come. So it's a concern about whether they can afford to come or not."
Morgan ruled out the possibility of the Fringe Society acting as the legal sponsor for visiting artists.
"We can't," he said. "We just don't have that money. It's quite likely that venues will have to take on that responsibility, and I can imagine quite a few won't want to do that."
This will be Morgan's second festival as director, having taken over shortly before last year's Fringe. He inherited a festival in rude health: 1.7 million tickets sold, a 10% growth on 2006.
But Morgan is less keen to trumpet such figures than his predecessor, Paul Gudgin: "The stories about the growth of the Fringe and tickets sold can be misleading We have talked about all that and there's a perception that everyone's making a fortune. In fact that's not the case for 98% of promoters, performers and venues."
One tradition Morgan has continued from Gudgin, however, is demanding more public funding for the Fringe. Currently the only regular stream of public funding for the Fringe comes from Edinburgh City Council.
Already this year the acclaimed physical theatre venue Aurora Nova has announced it will not be able to operate in August because of spiralling costs, a victim of what Morgan refers to as "the fragile economy of the Fringe".
"I'm really sad and disappointed they aren't going ahead this year," he said. "It's an example of important artistic work but not as commercially viable as some of the comedy shows. I want the Fringe have that mix. There is a case to be made for public funding to support that kind of work. I'm not talking about funding straight to the Festival Society, I'd be much happier if it went to the artists who needed it and enabled them to come."
The government's recently unveiled Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, worth £2m a year, is one new pot of public funding the Fringe will be taking advantage of, but not until 2009.
Morgan said it would be used to help Scottish acts appear at the Fringe, but refuted any suggestion this could lead to the Fringe Society actively programming aspects of the festival, something against its open-access spirit.
"I don't intend to become a curator," he said. "We will work it in a way that I won't be deciding which shows can take part and which shows can't. But it's a good problem to have. I'd much rather the money was there to support some people to take part and worry about how to do that without muddying the waters about open access, than not have the money."
Appreciating what can be a scramble for money in the arts is one reason why Morgan supports The Gilded Balloon, Assembly, Pleasance and Underbelly's controversial plans to market their comedy programmes under the title of Edinburgh Comedy Festival.
When the "big four" announced their plans, many feared they would break away from the Fringe altogether, robbing it of the majority of its most popular art form. But Morgan said he has assurances this will not happen in "either the long or short term".
"Artists and venues have to make the equations stack up any way they can, and for these four venues this is a way they feel they can make it stack up," he said.
"Unless there's more public funding for the Fringe as an event, who am I to say you can't do that or shouldn't do that? If it helps bring more people to the Fringe because they're attracted by the comedy programme that can only be to the good."
