Fringe by the Sea has reportedly injected £9,923,100 into the local economy through visitor spend.
This figure is up 23% from 2023 when the festival also gained its VisitScotland Thistle Award for Outstanding Event or Festival.
Fringe by the Sea is a not-for-profit, multi-arts festival lasting 10 days. It is based in the town of North Berwick and aims to bring “together like minded people who share a passion for the arts.”
This year was their 17th festival. It took place between the 2 and 11 of August and had a total of 86,130 Visitors.
The event is held at the towns Lodge Grounds with this year’s lineup including The Stranglers, The Jacksons and Richard E. Grant.
Fringe by the Sea has also become a master partner of the North Berwick Trust, a local charity which aims to support local residents via grants. Through this they support 191 community projects in the North Berwick area.
The festival has received some criticism from locals due to the large influx of visitors which cause parking and congestion issues.
Fringe by the Sea promote the use of public transportation during the festival. They, alongside Scotrail put on additional late-night services to and from the venues.
Director of the festival, Rory Steel spoke to The Scotsman about the issues in obtaining government funding and raised questions about the festival’s future.
“We were then turned down for funding from Creative Scotland to deliver our major 2024 community project and it’s likely this will be the last year that we receive an EventScotland grant,”.
“Beach” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0.