Reader Q&A: ask our comedy critic anything ahead of the Edinburgh fringe – live
Brian is live
Brian is now answering your questions about the Edinburgh fringe.
Key events
Is the fringe now just for visitors and ‘the industry’?
WolfFlow asks: Having lived in Edinburgh for more than 30 years, is it safe to say that the Fringe is for tourists and “the industry”?
Brian:
I don’t believe that’s the case. I grew up in Fife, my family are still there, and I’ve got family and friends in Edinburgh too. They all go to fringe events every year, as I did when with my pals when I was a teenager.
In my experience, it’s an unhelpful myth, usually propagated by people with little love for the arts, that Edinburgh residents don’t like the fringe. Some don’t, I’m sure. But many do, and are proud and delighted that their city hosts the biggest and best performing arts festival in the world.
Brian is live
Brian is now answering your questions about the Edinburgh fringe.
Welcome to the Conversation
Join us at 1pm (BST) on Tuesday 4 August, as the Guardian’s comedy critic Brian Logan answers your questions about Scotland’s singular performing arts festival.
In his many years of covering the fringe, Brian has seen it change and grow, and break stars and shows alike. But in a Guardian column four years ago he wrote that “in recent years, my enthusiasm has been increasingly smothered by caveats: that the fringe is too absurdly expensive for artists, to a degree that excludes many; that it’s insufficiently diverse; that it can be overwhelming, gruelling and lonely for many of the people taking part” and that it “must change or die”. Have the past few editions changed his mind? And this year, with dynamic pricing being trialled, will there be questions about who the fringe is for?
Please post your questions for Brian below now.
