Exclusive:'Right call' to move dates to align with schools says festival director as ticket sales rocket by 16 per cent

The director of Fringe by the Sea has said moving its dates earlier to align with local school holidays was the "right call for us" as ticket sales rose by 16.7 per cent.

Rory Steel revealed the event would also begin a week earlier than the main Edinburgh festivals again next year in a bid to attract more local families to the event.

The North Berwick festival, which featured more than 300 acts including Belle and Sebastian at this year’s event, scheduled a week of events before the start of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in its 18-year history in a bid to avoid a clash with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and to ensure local children were able to attend events.

Performers at this year's Edinburgh Fringe have warned the late timing of this years festivals hit ticket sales in the last week of the event. Overall, the number of tickets allocated for the Fringe was eight per cent higher than last year, but artists reported “empty rooms” in the final few days. Many Scottish schools, including those in the Edinburgh council area, returned to classrooms just a few days after the festivals began.

A report released by Fringe by the Sea said this year’s event had delivered a £12.7m boost for the region. The analysis found 77 per cent of attendees in 2026 were visitors to North Berwick, up from 75 per cent in 2025, with just under half coming from outside East Lothian. Across ten days from 31 July to 9 August, 111,500 people visited the festival - up 8.3 per cent on 2025.

Mr Steel also said smaller festivals like his, which operates completely separately to the Edinburgh festivals, were at risk from conflicts with large events such as BBC Radio Two in the Park in Stirling, saying some acts already booked for Fringe by the Sea had tried to get out of contracts in favour of performing at the larger event.

Radio Two in the Park had originally been scheduled for August, but was moved to September after many local festivals in the Stirling area raised concerns, saying they would be hard hit by the competition.

Fringe By The Sea reported a record year. Pic: Lewis Houghton | Fringe By The Sea reported a record year. Pic: Lewis Houghton

Mr Steel said: “The East Lothian school holidays had got a little bit out of sync with the dates for first time since I've been involved in the festival since 2018. Because we've got such a big family audience and a lot of family shows, we took the decision to go a week earlier than Edinburgh for the first time in our history. That certainly was the right call for us, because of the fact that kids would have been back at school when half the festival was on.

“It also meant there was just a bit more airtime for us. We weren’t competing against that first week of the Edinburgh Fringe, which was helpful, because more than half of our audience comes from outside East Lothian, so we weren’t competing against the plethora of shows in Edinburgh.”

He said big events run by larger operators ran the risk of hitting smaller festivals - through the loss of acts, but also due to issues with the availability of infrastructure.

He said: “What small festival organisers like Fringe by the Sea are really feeling is the pressure of big operators and big festivals, which are doing more and more and more each year, which puts a squeeze on on on the small festivals.”

He said some acts had “threatened” to pull out of Fringe by the Sea after being offered the opportunity to play at Stirling Castle before the dates of the BBC event were moved.

“We had obviously booked acts well in advance, then they said, ‘we wanted to do that, it's great for profile’,” he said.

“[I said] ‘Hey, we’ve got a contract in place’.”

Next year’s event will take place from 30 July to 8 August, while the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is scheduled to take place from 6 to 30 August.