New campaign group Fringe of Colour is offering non-white young people free tickets to theatre shows across several Scottish venues.
People of colour under the age of 25 can apply for tickets to see Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows such as Sophie Duker: Venus, FOC It Up: The Femmes of Colour Comedy Club and Modern Maori Quartet: Garage Party.
Jessica Brough, the founder of Fringe of Colour, has been campaigning to persuade venues to provide free passes to young local people of colour in a move designed to diversify audiences at The Fringe.
Brough, who was inspired by the Black Ticket Project, a scheme that provides young black people with free tickets to theatre shows, has teamed up with seven venues including Assembly, Gilded Balloon and Underbelly, as well as youth clubs and organisations such as Intercultural Youth Scotland and the Glasgow Women’s Library.
Brough told the Guardian newspaper: “I want to create the sense that there’s a community that’s willing to support you. The desire to have people in your audience that look like you or are representative of what you’re doing is something that most feel really strongly about.”
A spokesperson for the Edinburgh Fringe said, according to the Guardian, that in an effort to increase diversity in audience participation, they have been working with organisations such as Sikh Sanjog, an organisation for Sikh women, and SCOREscotland, whose work is serving the minority ethnic communities in west Edinburgh.
The Fringe, which is the world’s largest arts festival, hosts more than 3,500 shows each year over 25 days and features more than 55,000 performers in 317 venues.
Image: Abi Skipp
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