Episode 5: The World's Largest Arts Festival Announces a Reinvention. What Does This Say about the Post-Lockdown World?

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world's largest arts festivals, with over 3 million visitors each August. Last week it announced a series of major reforms to the ways it does business and treats employees and artists. It pledged to work towards lessening its environmental impact, and instituted new rules to "manage the scale" of the festival over the coming years. 

It's both a recognition that "bigger" had made Edinburgh a "lesser" experience, and it also says something about where the festival thinks we are after two years of disruption of COVID. How has COVID changed what people want when they decide to put down their screens and go out? We'll explore what Edinburgh thinks it is.