Battling Overwhelming Competition: Lessons from 'The Fringe'

During August, Edinburgh, Scotland hosts seven festivals simultaneously, of which the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one. At the Fringe Festival alone, over three weeks there are 3,841 total shows comprising 59,600 performances across 323 venues, with 53 countries represented, 706 free shows, and 963 Scottish shows. Although Edinburgh hosts the oldest and largest Fringe festival (it began in 1947), it now competes with more than 200 other Fringe festivals around the world. If there is one city at one time that personifies the realities confronting competitors in the media space, Edinburgh in August is it.