Break out the housewarming toasts! Greenside, one of Edinburgh Festival Fringe's beloved operators, has announced that it will be moving to new home.
The company, which previously maintained popular venues at Infirmary Street and Nicholson Square, will now operate on George Street, based within The Royal Society of Edinburgh. The new venue will feature six performance spaces under one roof, which when combined with Greenside's Riddle's Court venue and Pickle Studio, will lift the number of performance spaces operated by Greenside to an impressive 10.
Greenside is a rising star on the Edinburgh Fringe scene, with many American artists favoring them as operators. In 2023, Greenside produced the third largest collection of work at the Festival, and the company expects to eclipse their previous totals given the new expansion of space. At the 2023 Fringe, one in 10 shows on offer were housed within Greenside operated venues. Now, Greenside expects to program more 100 shows this coming August at the new George Street location alone.
Said Darren Neale and Tara Stapleton, the directors of Greenside in a statement: “We are immensely proud of what we have achieved over almost 20 years operating at the Fringe and we will continue to offer an Open Access venue where anyone can walk onto one of our stages. Although we were sad to say goodbye to our beloved Infirmary Street venue after a fantastic record breaking Fringe for us in August we are very excited about our reinvention and are really looking forward to entering our new home in George Street and delighted to welcome companies and audiences from next year onwards.”
The George Street venue will be housed inside The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters that was established in 1783. The current building, erected in 1909, stands on 22–24 George Street, in close proximity to many of the other large Edinburgh Fringe venue hubs and squares.
Information on the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe's programming will be released in the new year.
