Sharon Burgess to leave Assembly

A senior backstage figure at the Edinburgh Fringe is to move to Australia to run Perth’s Fringe World.

Sharon Burgess has been managing director of Assembly for the last six years and was general manager at the Gilded Balloon for the four years before that. She also sits on the board of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. 

She has been appointed chief executive of Artrage, the company behind Western Australia’s month-long festival after what was described as ‘a hotly contested international search.’

Anthony Robinson, who chairs the Artrage board, said: ‘We are thrilled to have secured the services of such a respected leader from across the world of Fringe. The opportunity attracted hundreds of applications and many outstanding candidates. 

‘The final shortlist included impressive individuals from the Western Australia cultural sector alongside a range of national and international industry leaders. 

‘At the end of a rigorous process over a number of stages, Sharon Burgess emerged as the standout best fit for the future of Fringe World.’

Fringe World was launched in 2011 and has rapidly grown to become the third largest in the world in terms of tickets sold, with more than 400,000 this year.

Burgess will take up her role after this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Published: 14 Mar 2019