Edinburgh Fringe launches 2023 festival line-up

Edinburgh Festival Fringe has unveiled a programme of more than 3,000 shows for this year's event in August.

Stars including Sir Cliff Richard, TV presenter Gail Porter and film director Ken Loach will be among those on stage.

In total there will be 3,013 shows - down from 3,171 last year. It follows concern that the cost of performing in Edinburgh is a barrier for many acts.

A fall in ticket sales for some shows in 2022 was blamed on accommodation prices and the rising cost of living.

The line-up also features politicians including Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham taking part in onstage interviews.

• Comic will carry on camping at Edinburgh Festival

• MP's Fringe show to go ahead after trans row

Christopher Biggins will host cabaret and chat at The Fringe at Prestonfield, with guests including Sir Cliff, Gloria Hunniford and Janey Godley.

Shows will take place in 248 venues, including unusual ones such as a swimming pool, a boxing club and stand-up sets by Armed Forces veterans in Lady Haig's Poppy Factory.

Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: "Getting the programme out into the world is such an important moment for everyone involved in the Fringe.

"The ideas, originality and passion that performers bring to Fringe stages every year is testament to the role that Edinburgh plays in celebrating and promoting their work to the world."

Comedian Richard Herring said high costs were a barrier for many performers

There are 308 free shows and 463 labelled "pay what you can" at this year's festival, which runs from August 4 to 28.

In March, Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge announced a £100,000 fund to help performers put on shows Fringe.

Much of the money is from her own charity, providing £2,000 bursaries for up to 50 performers.

It came after Fringe veteran Richard Herring said he would not perform at this year's Fringe due to concerns that spiralling costs are pricing out audiences and performers.

The comedian said the high cost of accommodation in the city meant "only people with a fair amount of wealth can attend".

There is nothing else like the Fringe, an open access festival, offering a share of the same stage, whatever your experience.

Sir Cliff Richard will be competing for the same audience as Edinburgh Theatre Arts, an amateur company who've been performing at the Fringe for more than 50 years.

If the 3,013 shows in the programme are anything to go by, the fringe mantra of offering anyone a stage, and everyone a seat still holds.

There are still obstacles to be overcome, whether that's censorship - both politician, Joanna Cherry and comedian Jerry Sadowitz are returning after having shows cancelled - or cost.

The cost of living combined with soaring accommodation prices continue to be the biggest barriers to taking part.

Part of the Fringe's problem is that it channels that early spirit of the eight theatre companies who turned up uninvited to the first Edinburgh International Festival in 1947.

That "let's put the show on here" mentality undermines the huge amount of work which goes into every one of those three thousand plus shows, with many of them returning year after year.

Funding bodies are beginning to listen. The UK government recently awarded its first grant to the Edinburgh International Festival, and a whopping £8m to the Fringe, but it's for capital projects only.

They continue to lobby for revenue funding so they can genuinely offer everyone a stage at the world's largest arts festival.