Nhau News Online News that is accurate, reliable, trustworthy!!
Accommodation shortages in Edinburgh push festival performers further out of the city, a comedian who has booked almost a month on a campsite has said.
Lee Kyle, from South Shields, will return to Scotland’s capital with his tent for his show at the Festival Fringe in August.
He will travel into the city every day for his lunch slot at The Pear Tree.
It was inevitable that many performers would be priced out of the festival, Lee said.
Accommodation costs in August have been creeping up in recent years and are set to get worse after a change to licensing requirements for self-catering properties in Scotland.
This year short-term lets available in August include one bedroom flats with a monthly rate of £10,000 and a three-bedroom flat for £34,000.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Lee said the cost of camping had gone up this year but was still a difference between £450 and “many thousands” for staying indoors.
“My accommodation is something that I’ve started over the last few years, partly because something fell through at the last minute but in terms of affordability what I do is I stay in a tent for a month,” he said.
“It’s not as grim as it sounds,” Lee said. “It’s not like festival camping. It’s a nice place with lots of facilities but it’s not how I would choose to spend a month, although arguably I have.”
He said pricing poorer people out of the festival as costs soared was “inevitable”.
“In years past I may have done the Edinburgh Festival without a second thought and now it’s becoming less tenable,” he said.
“You may get paid by a venue but on the whole you’re more likely to pay a venue and end up owing various people rather than them owing you. BBC
