2019 Edinburgh Fringe programme officially launched

The official printed Edinburgh Fringe programme has been launched today, heralding the official start of the festival season.

The book lists 59,600 performances of 3,841 shows across 323 venues – with 28 per cent of them either free or Pay What You Want performances.

This year’s Fringe features work from a record 63 countries, including 206 shows from mainland Europe.

Most of the shows have already been on sale online, but the launch of the brochure marks the start of the most frantic marketing period of the year.

Organisers at the Fringe Society have introduced two new bits of online technology to help festival-goers navigate the vast programme this year.

The Inspiration Machine is an interactive, arcade-style machine that will randomly display videos from Fringe artists at the push of a button. A physical machine will be located on The Mound throughout August, while it is also available online.

And the FringeMaker game will encourage visitors to explore different venues and shows and tackle random Fringe challenges using a  treasure hunt-style app that rewards players for discovering top hats hidden in various venues.

Launching the programme, Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: ‘The Fringe is a remarkable feat of engineering and human endeavour, and this year we are celebrating all the artists, writers, crew, staff, venue operators, audience members and more who come together to Make Your Fringe.’

'Make Your Fringe' is the slogan of this year's festival.

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Parliament’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, added: ‘The Fringe is an economic powerhouse, generating £144 million for the Edinburgh economy and £173 million for Scotland’s economy.

‘This year, the programme demonstrates once again why it is one of the most important events in the international cultural calendar. Innovation and creativity will provide unforgettable moments for festival goers and will raise Scotland’s standing on the world stage.’

So far, more than 1,400 comedy shows have been announced for this year’s Fringe. See Chortle’s listings here or download the full printed programme here.  Note that this is a large file, 54MB.

Published: 5 Jun 2019