Edinburgh Fringe: Where is the Love?

I’m up in Edinburgh at the moment, watching the excitement at the Fringe’s street level crank up several notches as the performers prepare for a multitude of launch parties.

Whilst it’s great to see all these performers building themselves up into a state of anticipatory frenzy, I am left wondering why the Scottish media aren’t doing the same. I’m particularly puzzled as to why they are more excited about the Edinburgh Tattoo, and the musty smell of Empire that only comes with a collection of people charging around with cannons.

There is an extraordinary level of ambivalence from the Scottish media, particularly the BBC and the Scotsman, to the Fringe Festival. Its three-week run is a huge economic success for the city, but where are the BBC cameras and where is the love? Why are the media not moving in to cover the Fringe in the same manner as Glastonbury is covered?

Is it because of all the English people coming up for the Fringe? Is it because it isn’t seen as relevant to little old ladies living in Orkney?

If the Scottish media do not embrace the Fringe, what chance does it have? In a time when the traditional media is failing, surely it makes sense to reach out to the Fringe and embrace it rather than push it away as if it’s producing a bad smell. The international media is not as present – and cannot afford to be in the current climate – but surely that is the perfect excuse for the Scottish media to move in and exploit the internet to promote Scotland in a more varied and forward-thinking light than it does by only venerating the Edinburgh Tattoo.