Another day, another media visit. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we took a walk over to visit the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. This visit was very interesting for me for many reasons. Oliver Davis, the head of marketing and development, talked to us about the origins of the festival, what it means to them, and the steps they’ve taken to develop the festival in the years that it has been happening. The festival started in 1947 after WWII. The war had just ended and to boost morale the city decided to create a festival for the city. When the festival happened, however, groups showed up to perform uninvited. They were told they weren’t allowed to perform at the festival and so they performed on the very fringes of the festival. This is where the Fringe Festival was born.
Today, there are 3,800 shows at the Fringe yearly that vary widely in their genre. Not only that, but there are also more than 250 Fringes around the world that were inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe. Although the Fringe definitely has the ability to be cocky about their success, from what Oliver said they are constantly working to hear the concerns of their audience and performers in order to best serve them. Something I thought was really interesting were the accommodations they’ve recently made for guests that are on the autistic spectrum or who have sensory sensitivities. They came up with bags that they could hand out to those guests that contained things like fidget spinners, noise-cancelling headphones, etc. that can help in situations that could cause sensory overload and make the festival less comfortable for them. This is so important and such a great example to set for other festivals.
After this visit was over, we had a break for lunch in which I went to another Pret a Manger and got a salad. I then took a nice slow walk back to the hotel room, taking in the city around me, and took the extra time to relax a little more and get myself settled into the hotel room. Then, we headed to the next media visit at Whitespace. We first heard from David Anderson, a photographer that recently worked with Whitespace but has worked commercially for ten years. He showed us some examples of his work and talked about his process.
Then, we heard from Chris, the head of the creative team at Whitespace. He told us what Whitespace is, how they work, and then David and Chris both discussed a recent project they both worked on for Shackleton Whiskey. They went from the project brief all the way to the finished product and it was very interesting to hear their creative process and how some of their ideas went really well and others completely failed and they had to make something up on the fly. They also talked about the struggles of working with influencers which was really interesting because Battenhall talked about them in a very positive light.
When we were finished I had dinner at El Toro Loco, a Mexican restaurant down the street from the hotel. It was delicious; possibly the best burrito I’ve ever had in my life. After this, my friends and I decided to go to an Italian restaurant for some dessert, which was also delicious. Eventually we got back to the hotel, but I didn’t stay long because another group was heading out to hear some live music. We heard two different musicians and they were both amazing and sang lots of songs that I recognized. The rest of the night was another night full of dancing and fun and I came back to the hotel ready for a good night’s sleep.