Why the Oasis reunion tour is ‘catastrophic’ for Edinburgh Fringe performers
For years now, many performers at Edinburgh Fringe have spoken about their struggles to afford the sky-high prices for their accommodation each August.
This year, with Oasis’s reunion tour coming to the city for three nights, the cost of securing a room for a month at the biggest arts festival in the world is even higher.
Comedian Marc Borrows says “the ‘Oasis effect’ on the Fringe economy has been catastrophic”.
A flat cost Marc Borrows ‘an extra thousand pounds this year’. Pic: Alexis Dubus
Rather fittingly, his stand-up show this year is called The Britpop Hour.
“It’s an idea I’d had in my back pocket for a while,” he explains. “Then the band reformed and when I saw they were playing Edinburgh I thought ‘yeah, this is the year to do this!'”
While he’s thrilled that the Gallagher brothers are coming to town, it means many performers are taking a financial hit.
“I’ll give you an example, I tried to get the same flat that I’ve had the last two years at the Fringe, a student flat, nothing fancy, and it costs an extra thousand pounds this year.”
Because of the increased demand for beds, newcomer Amy Albright will be sleeping in her red Volkswagen for her two-week stint at the Fringe.
“Costs are even more expensive,” she says. “It’s just not an option for me, so instead I’m living in my car.”
Amy Albright says sleeping in her car saves a lot of money
With blackout blinds and a portable coffee maker, she says it’s actually not as bad as some might think.
“I park just outside of town in a really nice safe area, I use a gym for showers … this saves me so much money … I wouldn’t be able to afford to perform at the Fringe otherwise.”
Holly Spillar’s show Tall Child explores her relationship with class. She was fortunate enough to be one of 180 recipients of a £2,500 bursary from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
It is the third year the Keep it Fringe fund has been run, backed this year by a £1m injection of government money.
As Holly explains: “I live month to month on a minimum wage job … and it costs me about five grand to do the fringe.”
Holly Spillar says it ‘costs me about five grand to do the Fringe’. Pic: Jennifer Forward-Hayter
Alongside the grant, she’s also had to take out a loan, which she says will take her two years to pay back.
“It’s a very precarious situation you put yourself in just to be in the room,” she adds.
Chloe Petts – now an established name on the comedy circuit – says the problem needs to be recognised for being less about Oasis and more about a problem that’s been brewing for years.
Chloe Petts says it’s problem that’s been brewing for years. Pic: Matt Stronge
“Accommodation is just totally out of control,” she says.
“If this leads us to further conversations about that, then fantastic but … it has to be a conversation about how it’s totally unaffordable for the average person to come to the Fringe, and I think that’s stopping a lot of people coming up who deserve to be here.”
Scottish comedian Susan McCabe, a lifelong Oasis fan, reckons there’s no point getting too worked up, especially given the siblings fractious relationship.
“We are here every year and they may not even be here for those three gigs … they might have fallen out by then!”
She adds: “It is what it is, at the end of the day … they were the greatest rock and roll band of the 1990s, just let them be.”
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• Amy Albright is performing her stand-up at locations across Edinburgh, including Not My Audience!, on 8 August
• Holly Spillar: Tall Child is at Underbelly until 24 August
• Chloe Petts: Big Naturals is at Pleasance Courtyard until 24 August
• Susan McCabe: Best Behaviour is at Gordon Aikman Theatre until 24 August
• The Britpop Hour with Marc Burrows is at Underbelly until 25 August
UK
Urgent letter to home secretary over violence against women and girls strategy – as it omits child abuse
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.
Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.
Poppy Eyre when she was four years old
Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.
The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.
Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse
She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.
The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.
“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.
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Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.
It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.
“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.
“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.
UK
Man and boy arrested on suspicion of arson after restaurant fire leaves two in critical condition
A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.
Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.
Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.
Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.
Woodford Avenue from above. Pic: UK News and Pictures
Police are still trying to identify them.
CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.
Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.
“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.
“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.
The moment the fire broke out.
“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”
Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.
He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”
He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”
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The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.
“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.
On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.
“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”
The police investigation is continuing.
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