New Edinburgh Fringe venue MultiStory welcomes over 18k audience members in augural year
Over 18,000 audience members have attended shows at MultiStory, the new Covid-secure open-air venue from Gilded Balloon, ZOO, Dance Base and Traverse in the NCP Car Park in the shadow of Edinburgh’s historic castle.
After the Fringe was cancelled in 2020, MultiStory was conceived by ZOO and Gilded Balloon, along with Dance Base and Traverse as producing partners, to help revitalise the Fringe on its return in 2021, employing local Scottish artists and staff, with the majority of the programme consisting of Scottish artists, such as Shooglenifty, Fred MacAulay, Leah MacRae, Captivate Theatre, Slanjayvah Danza and Dance Ihayami.
The new festival hub in the heart of Edinburgh’s cultural quarter was sponsored by Edinburgh’s favourite local brewery Innis & Gunn. MultiStory also hosted food and drink stalls from the Pitt, Edinburgh’s pioneering, independent street food market, as part of the venue’s pledge to support from local businesses affected by the pandemic.
The MultiStory programme included multiple sell-out shows such as Captivate Theatre’s Sunshine on Leith, Jason Byrne’s Audience Precipitation and Alice Rabbit’s Aye-Cons, two world premieres from Matsena Productions (Rituel) and Dirty Protest (Double Drop), and new shows for families including the eco-musical Bicycle Boy and Funbox’s Back to the Fringe. Alongside this was the return of festival favourites like former Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso John Sampson, as well as Éowyn Emerald and Dancers with Your Tomorrow.
Artistic Director of Gilded Balloon, Katy Koren, said: “We've been delighted to be able to provide a platform for artists again this Fringe. It's been challenging under the circumstances but ultimately rewarding to ensure the live performance could go ahead safely this year. Working with a new collaboration of venues at this beautiful new location with Edinburgh's Castle as our stage's backdrop has been an incredible experience for us all. We'd like to thank the Scottish Government, the City of Edinburgh Council, Event Scotland, NCP and the city of Edinburgh residents for supporting this new cultural hub this Fringe.”
Artistic Director of ZOO, James MacKenzie, added: “This year’s festival has been a resounding success for everyone involved. We’re delighted to have worked with three brilliant partners to bring the Festival Fringe back to the city – I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve achieved, and the tremendous critical and commercial response to the programme. None of this would have been possible without the artists and shows who took a gamble on MultiStory back in June, when it was a new venue in a very uncertain time. As we look forward to next year and what it might hold for the Edinburgh Festivals, what has taken place across the Fringe this year is testament to what can be achieved with public investment in Edinburgh’s greatest cultural asset and the world’s largest arts festival.”
