The Fringe Festival Society

Our first full day in Scotland was spent at media visits, the first being at Whitespace. After a quick breakfast that consisted mostly of cheese, bread, and jam we departed by foot to the French Embassy where we met with Oliver Davies, Head of Marketing and Development, at the Fring Festival Society.

The Fringe Festival is the world’s largest arts festival, and in 2018 spanned 25 days and featured more than 55,000 performances of 3,548 different shows in 317 venues.

At the Fringe, everyone can perform, and the nonprofit actually doesn’t hire acts, but instead, they organize the different venues that attend. Fringe Festivals are being represented in 63 different countries with over 250+ festivals around the world.

Oliver then went on to tell us all of the details with how this three-week long festival functions and runs smoothly. One thing that I found extremely interesting was how well they accommodated to those with special needs, doing everything they can to make sure those individuals have the same experience as everyone else.

Whitespace

Whitespace where we spoke with David N. Anderson, a Commercial Photographer, and Chris Davey, Head of Creative at Whitespace.

David went through and showed us some of his work that he has done and talked to us about his background in photography and some of the projects he has worked on in the past. Afterward, Chris came in and told us a little bit about himself and Whitespace.

Whitespace was founded in 1997 with a focus on digital media and brand design. Now, 20 years later, the team of 70+ “Whitespacers” is based at Norloch House, at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, with a diverse portfolio of clients across the private, public and third sectors.

David and Christ than when into detail about a campaign they worked on for the whiskey brand, Shackleton. The whiskey itself has a fantastic background involving a Scottish explorer and his Antarctic expedition.

David and Chris then walked us through what their two weeks in Greenland gathering content. They talked to us about how it was difficult not only working in the harsh weather conditions but also trying to make the images all look unique and different, as David said: “you can only stick the bottle in ice so many times before all the pictures start looking the same.”

It was very interesting to see a day-by-day walk through their two weeks gathering content and putting together the campaign.