Bill Burdett-Coutts — who has run Assembly for the last 25 years — kicked off the annual war of the wor(l)ds apart between the Fringe and the International Festival last week by asserting that though the official festival was originally the train drawing the carriages of the fringe it was now more like the other way around, and suggesting a possible merger of the two events (see the blog entry below).
Now Brian McMaster — who has run the International Festival for the last fourteen years and will be retiring next year after his 15th festival — has kicked off this year’s International Festival (which began last night) by rejecting claims that the festivals could amalgamate — “No way at all”, he said — but pointing out that there’s already a lot more colloboration rather than antagonism between them. “We work together already, more and more,” he said, and added, “In the past we used to fight, but we now work together.” Not according to Burdett-Coutts, who many commentators are naming as a possible successor to McMaster.
Who else could be in the running? Jude Kelly, who spearheaded the Olympics arts bid, might have been a contender, but she’s just been conscripted to run the South Bank Centre; Graham Sheffield, currently artistic director at the multi-purpose Barbican Centre where he has established the BITE festival as a year-round celebration of visiting and home produced plays, dance and opera; or perhaps one of the directors, like Steven Pimlott (who has just announced that he will not be returning to Chichester next year), who conveniently straddle the theatrical and operatic worlds. Or they could look abroad — someone like Robyn Archer, an Australian who is already co-ordinating events for the Liverpool City of Culture festivities, has previously run the Adelaide Festival.
Meanwhile, on the fringe, yesterday saw the dark skies part for a lovely sunny afternoon in the Meadows for what could be the last Fringe Sunday. The Fringe Society who administer the fringe reported their first loss in eight years, of just over £15,000, for last year’s festival, and with costs to stage Fringe Sunday — a free public event where fringe groups can show their wares (and hand out a ton of flyers) — doubling in the past six years from £32,000 in 1998 to £65,000 now, it’s becoming too high a price to pay. Which is a pity, since this is a genuine community event that attracts locals and families to share a little bit of the fringe spirit. Whether or not it actually translates into ticket sales, however, is another question.
