How much does it cost to mount a show on the Fringe? Dreadful question, but art costs money somewhere along the line - even graffiti artists need materials.
The Fringe, even if you're based in Edinburgh (and I have the good fortune to be) comes dashed expensive. Venue hire is one of the main items - the company I work with are paying £2,000+ for
a one hour slot in a very good, but by no means high profile venue. If you want to play a main space in a prominent venue expect to pay more, especially if you want to play during the early and mid evening, possibly more if you're late night comedy / cabaret.
That, of course is the start. Finding somewhere to stay will be hard and again, very likely expensive. The population
of Edinburgh doubles in August. Bearing in mind there's c. 500,000+ people
permanently living in the Edinburgh area, that's an awful lot of people looking
for somewhere to stay in August.
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I take my hat off to anyone
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£2,000+ seems steep
Presumably that's for the full 13-day run of the show? Even with 150 people a show paying the full £8 ticket price, you're still £800 short of that.
I expect that fee includes various marketing costs though. And Venue 45 is a good little venue...
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I take my hat off to anyone brave enough to put a show on at the Fringe. I know that some shows - particularly established comedians - can rake it in over the course of August. But I'm sure there's many more who go home nursing a loss. Even the Assembly Rooms was hit last year.