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mark@theatreSCOTLAND.com

Monday, February 13, 2012

Miriam Attwood's tips for surviving the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

MIRIAM Attwood, former media manager in the Fringe Office, gives her tips for a successful run on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Come to the Fringe for the right reasons: "They're all completely different reasons, but they are the right reasons for them."

Keep your marketing image consistent:
"If you're going to have council poster boards, it needs to be the same image and exactly the same theme as in the programme, so that people who flick through the programme and think it is interesting will see it again."

Have faith in your ability to go it alone: "If from the moment you do your programme entry, you plan, you are meticulous about everything you do and bring in extra people to help, you can do it all yourself."

Avoid hype: "Being honest in your marketing about what you're doing is exactly the right approach."

Get a plan and stick to it: "Be organised, do a good show, be prepared for exhaustion and heartbreak, think about what you want, be open about your aims, make sure your whole company is engaged, plan, read any bit of supporting information you can, talk to companies that have done the Fringe before and come and talk to the media team in the Fringe Office. The majority of people I speak to at the end of the festival who have made a plan and fulfilled it are happy."


Don't feel obliged to over-do it: "The view that a lot of Fringe comedians present on television is to do with crazy stories of wild nights out. But you know that 18 nights of their festival, they went home at midnight, having had a couple of drinks after the show and maybe they had two nights when they ended up in the Penny Black [a pub with very late licensing hours]. People come and work hard - and sandwich in some craziness within that."

Support your fellow performers and get them to support you: "They feedback criticism and comments and they'll say, 'Do you realise you've got this amazing vision? Do you realise this show is about a massive news story at the moment and have you emailed The Scotsman arts diary?'"


Find more words of advice in The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide.

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Follow me on Twitter @MarkFFisher, @WriteAboutTheat and @LimelightXTC I am a freelance journalist and critic specialising in theatre and the arts. Publications I write for include the Guardian and the Scotsman. I am the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide: how to make your show a success and How to Write About Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers. I am also editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls: A Limelight Anthology and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book. From 2000-2003, I was the editor of The List magazine, Glasgow and Edinburgh's arts and events guide.

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