**UPDATE**
Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far. You are beautiful, brilliant people and we really appreciate your support. You have helped us reach our target and ensure that Forest Fringe will definitely happen this summer.
However, if we can now raise a little more money in the last couple of weeks of the campaign there are a number of additional things we'll be able to do to make Forest Fringe really, really special this summer. I believe these are what people in the crowdfunding business call Stretch Goals.
£8000 - Forest Fringe Plus!
This year we're really excited to hopefully be collaborating again with the wonderful people at the Forest Cafe to host a whole mini-programme of shows at Forest Centre +, a massive former job centre in the centre of the city, with work by artists including Verity Standen, Volcano Theatre and Caroline Williams & the Young Vic. Your support will make this new venue happen by helping cover the costs of artist accommodation, production management and some additional technical equipment to ensure this new venue is as well cared for as our other home at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall.
£9000 - Lunch for all Forest Fringe artists
Edinburgh is an incredibly exhausting and expensive place for artists, even those coming to Forest Fringe. Last year we were able to provide every artist at Forest Fringe with a meal on any day they were performing. This made a huge difference, not just to their ability to survive at the festival, but also to sense of community and togetherness we are trying to foster - artists and audiences eating and talking together and generally feeling part of something special. We'd love to be able to do this again.
£10,000 - Photographer and videographer-in-residence
In 2013 we were able to invite photographer Jemima Yong to come to Forest Fringe as a photographer in residence and she was able to produce this beautiful photo essay documenting everything that happened at Forest Fringe. An additional £1000 would cover travel and accommodation for a photographer-in-residence and a videographer-in-residence, allowing us to document the festival, not only for our benefit and that of the artists, but for all the people who have supported us but aren't able to make it to the festival this summer.
Short Summary
We have been running a free, totally
non-commercial venue at the Edinburgh Festival since 2007.
They say that, in terms of exposure and opportunities, one good run at the Edinburgh
Festival is the equivalent of one good year in an artist's career. Over the years the artists who have worked with us have gone on to win awards, to tour internationally, and to get rave reviews. Every
year we are overwhelmed with applications from artists who have worked with us
before, and artists who want to work with us for the first time. It's clear to us that we're offering something valuable to the careers of the artists we work with. And over the years those artists have become a community for us.
What makes us different from other Edinburgh
venues is that in addition to not charging artists or audience members (like
the Free Fringe), we also fund raise to cover all accommodation costs for our
artists, so that they can comfortably bring excellent, experimental,
non-commercial work to the Edinburgh Festival without worrying about losing
money.
This is year for the third year in a row we'll be working with the brilliant people at Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street just off Leith Walk to host Forest Fringe in their incredible space.
The venue is entirely run by volunteers - artists volunteer to run our box office, we volunteer to do the administration and running of the festival, and even our amazing tech team volunteer to run shows.
What We Need & What You Get
Despite the incredible value of people power, and the generosity of the Out of the Blue drill hall, there are still costs involved in running Forest Fringe. We need money to rent the space, we need money to print programmes, and we especially need money to rent apartments for artists to stay in during the festival, so that artists aren't funding their own way.
Forest Fringe is run by three
artists - Ira Brand, Andy Field and Deborah Pearson. We don't get paid
for our Edinburgh work - we
do it in our spare time, because over the years it's become clear that
artists
presenting experimental work need us to keep going. Now we need you to
keep going.
This is the first year that we are no longer
eligible for the generous Jerwood Foundation grant that we've received
for the
last five years. Because we've chosen to
forego the formal administrative structures of becoming a charity, there
aren't
many foundations or even larger private donors that we are eligible to
approach. This means that this year, if
we're going to make our venue happen and support the work of all the amazing artists we've programmed, we really need the community who
have
worked with us, who have come to see our shows, and who have already contributed
with
their attention and creativity, to step up and let us know that our Edinburgh venue matters to you.
Please
think of a donation as buying a ticket to this year's festival - or think
of it as
buying a ticket to last year's festival, or the festival the year
before. If everyone who has ever come to Forest Fringe donates £20 now, we will easily meet our target.
Any money you donate will go directly to
either
a) The accommodation costs of our
artists. We put up around 20 to 25
artists every festival in shared accommodation. This usually costs between around £6,000 and £8,000 at minimum.
b) Technical equipment and support. This means our lighting rig, and rental of
our sound system. This usually costs around £2,000 at minimum.
c)
The Accessibility Programme. For
the last two years, Forest Fringe has been running an "Accessibility
Day" for hearing impaired audiences.
We've built a strong relationship with hearing impaired communities in
Edinburgh and we would love to keep this going. This costs around £1,500 at minimum.
d) Printing our Programme. This is so that you have a document letting you know what shows are on when. This costs around £2,000 at minimum.
In addition to crowdfunding, we're also going to be running a fundraiser, and an online auction. So there are plenty of different ways to give. That said, because we do all of this in our spare time, the more money we can raise through this crowdfunding campaign, the more time we have to focus on organizing our Edinburgh events and supporting our Edinburgh artists, as opposed to organizing fundraising events. So if by some wonderful and beautiful turn of events, we've already hit our £7,000 target for this crowdfunding campaign, we would really appreciate any further contributions you can give through this page. We need to raise £15,000 total in a few short months, so the more people know about our campaign and give to it, the better.
The Impact
Rather than funding one show or one
Edinburgh run, if this crowdfunding campaign is successful, it's going to
enable at least 25 experimental artists to come to Edinburgh this year. It will allow us to keep a venue that's
dedicated to experimental work going at an incredibly commercial festival. If you've come to Forest Fringe in Edinburgh
before, please consider donating to ensure that you can come to Forest Fringe in
Edinburgh again.