08: 7 Lessons for Classical Musicians from the Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts festival in the world with 3,334 separate shows, 2.2 million issued tickets, and 277 different venues (2022 numbers). This festival coexists with the Edinburgh International Festival and features more than 700 street performers during the month of August. Most performers come for the duration of the 21 day festival, perform daily, and are responsible for their own marketing. Many performers spend hours each day promoting their shows and working hard to gather an audience.
This is the “wild west” of the performing arts. Almost everything you can imagine is represented and the quality runs the gamut from absolutely cringe-worthy to extraordinary. While classical music was a prominent part of the Edinburgh International Festival, it was only a tiny portion of the Fringe Festival.
Recently my family and I spent seven days at the Fringe where I attended eighteen shows. Nearly every sector of the performing arts field was represented. We had a magnificent experience enjoying everything from Harry Potter inspired improv comedy to a cutting-edge blending of circus performing, modern dance, and classical music. I once again fell in love with the power of live performance and the ability for the arts to capture and express the most beautiful parts of our shared humanity. The experience also reminded me that most classical musicians live in siloed walls. We don’t spend much time absorbing the amazing work happening throughout the other performing arts, and this was particularly evident as I strolled through the streets of Edinburgh, watching all forms of art take flight around me.
Here are seven lessons I think classical musicians can learn from the Fringe Festival.
1. Repeat Performances Make You A Stronger Performer
Performing the same show for twenty-one days in a row builds powerful performing muscles. The confidence developed through this performance marathon cannot be learned in a classroom or a modest schedule of concerts spread out across a season. A performer can better understand how to consistently prepare for performances, recover when something goes awry, cultivate good audience connections, and rest effectively in order to offer one's best the next day. Many successful Fringe performers spend years in the trenches, performing to empty halls and patiently building their skills and artistry. The Fringe Festival, however, offers accelerated growth. The daily grind of getting on stage over and over is a life-changing experience.
2. Classical Musicians can Learn Much by Watching the Other Performing Arts
Performing artists across all genres wrestle with the same questions about how to connect with an audience, shape a performance, leave the audience wanting more, and broaden that experience into long term audience building. The Fringe Festival is riddled with genre bending performers, cross genre collaborations, and wild innovation. Classical musicians have so much to learn from seeing what else is out there and how other performers master their craft on stage. Expanding our ideas of what it looks like to be a classical musician in the twenty-first century, both on and off the stage, is essential to the survival of our art form - and something that the Fringe Festival has already adopted and has allowed it to thrive.
3. The Brilliance of an Intimate One-Hour Performance
Most Fringe Festival performances span one hour and take place in venues seating fewer than 100 people. An intimate and focused performance creates an experience that is truly different from watching the performing arts on a screen. The human connection is palpable in a small venue and there is just enough time to say something substantial without overtaxing the audience. Plus, what's not to love about a short, enjoyable show preceded and followed by drinks and great conversation?
4. People Love Live Performance, but it Depends on How it’s Packaged
So what does the Fringe Festival actually look like and why do people like it so much? Imagine clumps of performance venues surrounded by beer gardens and food stalls. Eating, drinking, and socializing fill in the gaps between performances and make for a communal, delightful experience. Venues are set up in funky and unexpected locations where drinks are readily available. Short, one-hour performances further foster the before-and-after rituals of live arts. The whole experience, beyond just the actual shows, is an essential part of what drives arts lovers to attend from all over the world.
5. Your Perspective Changes when you are Responsible to get Butts in Seats
Probably 95% or more of the Fringe Festival performances face a daily struggle to vie for attention and get butts in seats. Many factors work together to either fill your venues or leave you with lackluster energy and lots of empty places. Internet presence, poster marketing, word of mouth, overall branding, and on-the-street hustling all factor into what drives the hundreds of thousands of audience members to choose one event over another.
Since your pay is a percentage of ticket sales, audience attendance determines whether you will break-even, lose money, or possibly even make a little money. Suddenly your ability to connect with an audience and give them a gripping performance translates into word-of-mouth marketing. The materials you create and how you sell your show ends up being as important as the quality of the show.
6. Street Performers Live or Die (figuratively) through their Power to Connect
Street performers are a vital part of the Fringe experience. Everything is included: music, comedy, juggling, magic, fire-breathing, dance, mime, live painting. With thousands of people constantly on the move, there is potential to earn hundreds of pounds in tips. Many of the 700 street performers who come to Edinburgh for the annual Fringe Festival actually make a living as a performer. So what makes a street performer stand out from the (very significant) pack?
The best street performers are brilliant communicators. They connect instantly and hold attention in a noisy and unpredictable outdoor setting. With modern audiences craving human connection with people onstage, there are many lessons to be learned. How do you talk to an audience? How do you create that magical space where people are eager to take in your performance? This vital communication shapes the audience experience, deepens their enjoyment, and hopefully leaves them wanting more.
7. Aspire to the Greatness that you Surround Yourself With
Fringe performers spend a lot of time attending other shows. They make friends, hear the buzz about what’s hot, and take in a lot of extraordinary performances. I don’t think it can be underestimated how impactful this melting pot environment can be. Viewing great performances pulls you higher in your own journey towards mastery. Great performers have spent a lot of time watching others offer masterful performances, and so should you.