Our Top 10 Fringe Facts

We’re counting down our top 10 favourite facts about the Edinburgh Fringe! Starting with….

TEN

The Fringe is just 1 of 10 Festivals held in Edinburgh. Others include: International Science Festival; International Children’s Festival; The Royal Military Tattoo; Jazz & Blues Festival; Art Festival; International Film Festival; Book Festival; Edinburgh International Festival; and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival

NINE

Shows at the Fringe can largely be split into 9 categories: Cabaret, Children’s Shows, Comedy, Dance and Physical Theatre, Exhibitions, Music, Musicals and Operas, Spoken Word and Theatre. Approximately a third of the shows at the Fringe are comedy.

EIGHT

In 1947, 8 theatre companies gate-crashed the Edinburgh Festival and put on their own shows on the outskirts of the city, hence the name: Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

SEVEN

August 2019 will see the 72nd annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

SIX

It would take you approximately 6 years straight to watch all the material from Fringe 2018 back to back.

FIVE

55 countries were represented at last year’s Fringe Festival

FOUR

A massive 4.5 million people visited the Fringe last year – that’s about the same number of attendees as the World Cup

THREE

3,548 shows were performed over the course of the Fringe last year. PQA Venues hosted 39 of them!

TWO

Over 2.8 million tickets were sold for shows at Fringe in 2018  – 2,838,839 to be exact

ONE

As the single biggest arts festival in the world, there really is nothing like the Fringe.