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Edinburgh Fringe chief executive to stand down

Kelvin Boyes Press Eye Edinburgh Festival Fringe chief executive Shona McCarthy, who has reddish hair, looking into the camera on a rooftop in Edinburgh with the Old Town as a backdrop.Kelvin Boyes Press Eye
Shona McCarthy will stand down as chief executive of the Fringe next year

The chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has announced she is stepping down after nine years in the role.

Shona McCarthy will depart as head of the Fringe Society in spring 2025.

Under her leadership, the world-renowned arts festival has expanded to more than 3,700 shows with about 2.6 million tickets sold.

The Fringe’s honorary president, Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, thanked Ms McCarthy for “holding the festival together through its most challenging years”.

Ms McCarthy, who took over from Kath Mainland in 2015, said it had been an “enormous privilege” to lead the festival.

She said: “I love this phenomenal festival and will forever be an advocate and champion. I have worked with some of the best people in our sector, a committed and passionate team.

“In my remaining time with the Fringe Society I will be relentless in continued work with all to ensure our charity is in its best shape to continue to support this globally exceptional festival."

'One in a billion'

Ms McCarthy took the festival through the Covid lockdown a year after it celebrated its most successful year on record in 2019.

A full programme only returned in 2022.

Earlier this year, it was announced a former Victorian-era school on Infirmary Street in the heart of the city’s Old Town would become a permanent headquarters for the festival.

But in recent years, the Fringe has been hit by skyrocketing accommodation and venue costs.

Prominent performers including comic Jason Manford and Gail Porter said they had been “priced out” of the event by rapidly increasing living costs.

Ms Waller-Bridge, whose Fleabag character made her debut at the festival in 2013, became the festival's first honorary president in 2021.

“Shona held the Fringe together through its most challenging years and guided it to its record-breaking peak,” she said.

“She is one in a billion. I am personally devastated that she is leaving, but equally thrilled that she can take a well-earned rest knowing that she has raised more money, staged more shows, convinced more people of the importance and vibrancy of the Fringe than should be humanly possible.”