‘Glasgow Girls’ Shine At Edinburgh Fringe

The musical, which also won the Amnesty Freedom of Expression Award at this year’s Fringe, sold 12,105 tickets to its 22 performances during the festival, grossing £164,000 for Regular Music. “Glasgow Girls” is about young refugees from some of the world’s most war-torn, hostile countries and the friends they make within the Glasgow community where they were housed.

It comes at a time when refugees and immigration are hotly debated topics in post-Breixt UK. “It’s about the community protesting when the UK Border Agency tries to deport them. That difference of perspective and understanding, seeing refugees as people rather than statistics really struck a chord with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe audience.

“It’s a very powerful piece of theatre,” Regular Music managing director Mark Mackie told Pollstar. “We were amazed and obviously delighted by the response of the Edinburgh Fringe audience to Glasgow Girls.” Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival.

This year, Aug. 5-29, it hosted 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues across Edinburgh. Some 2,475,143 tickets had been issued for shows across Scotland’s capital, which marks a 7.7 percent increase on last year. However, when organizers announced the figures, many performances had yet to take place.

Chief Executive Shona McCarthy said: “The Fringe plays an essential role in the global arts community, providing a platform for artists from around the UK and the rest of the world to showcase their work and make new connections.

With 48 countries represented in this year’s program, the breadth and diversity of talent on offer has been astounding.

“We are now looking forward to our 70th anniversary celebrations in 2017 and hope that as many people as possible will join us to mark this fantastic milestone in the history of Edinburgh’s festivals.”