This year, Assembly Festival will be operating two sites and three venues at the Fringe including a new Outdoor Stage in George Square Gardens. Assembly Festival has been awarded £162,962 from the Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council to help fund outdoor events and support the safe return of live events at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Nik Whybrew Operations Director at Assembly Festival said: “This week we will be reviewing the capacities across all our venues in line with the new Government guidance on social distancing. Not all our shows will change, however we do hope that we can accommodate more customers at some of our most popular shows.
“All other measures will remain in place including the wearing of face coverings indoors, contactless payments and having hand sanitiser available at touchpoints in our venues.
And as before, ticket exchanges are available to customers who are self-isolating. We hope these measures will continue to reassure our customers that we are working hard to ensure that they can continue to feel safe whilst they are at our venues.”
Assembly Festival’s Fringe programme continues this week with a mix of short-run and full-run shows through from 10 – 29 August. Kicking off this week is twelve-person a cappella group Out of the Blue performing imaginative covers of everything from ‘Lady Marmalade’ from Moulin Rouge, to Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, the group have enjoyed high-profile appearances on Britain’s Got Talent and Pitch Battle.
Rhys Surtees, Performer from Out of the Blue said: “We are thrilled to be back on stage in Edinburgh, the energy is amazing and we have all loved performing live again.”
Also opening this week is a rework of 2019’s highly acclaimed Styx (9 – 15 Aug) from Second Body about living with Alzheimer’s disease and the extraordinary power music has to reignite fading memories. Plus, a stellar line-up of comedy including Shaparak Khorsandi (10 Aug); Nina Conti, who will be joined by one half of the Pajama Men for Podcast Stars, Richard & Greta (AKA Comedians Nina Conti and Shenoah Allen) Record Their Podcast Live on (12 & 13 August); Simon Evans (14 – 22 Aug); Joanne McNally (15 – 29 Aug); and family favourite Comedy Club 4 Kids (11 – 22 Aug).
Adding to the already popular theatre line-up at Assembly Roxy this week is multi-award-winning play Shell Shock (9 – 15 Aug) starring renowned TV comedy veteran Tim Marriott (The Brittas Empire) about the absurdities of everyday life for a soldier returning to ‘normal’ life after a long military career.
Plus, our music on the outdoor stage in George Square Gardens continues with Sarah Irvine (10 Aug), The Jellyman’s Daughter (11 Aug), Nicole and the Back Up Crew (12 Aug), Broken Record’s Jamie Sutherland (15 Aug), and more jazz and blues nights throughout August.
William Burdett-Coutts, Artistic Director, Assembly Festival said: “We are delighted that the Festival has got off to a great start, with many of our shows selling out over the opening weekend. This week we have some of the best comedians at the Fringe and a huge number of talented artists joining us in Edinburgh and we very much hope that audiences will continue to come to see our programme of live shows throughout the month of August, as well as enjoying our online programme.”
To keep up-to-date with our latest guidance and the full programme at Assembly Festival this summer, visit www.assemblyfestival.com
For information on our online season of shows visit www.assemblyfestival.com/showcatcher
