A brother and sister design duo have launched a new interactive Fringe Map to make the festival more manageable for tourists and locals alike.
Unlike other maps trialled in the past, this one allows Fringe patrons to view every show in the city by location and filter offerings by genre, price, suitability for children and proximity.
It is hoped the unofficial map can allow people to better orientate themselves when looking for Fringe shows – of which there are more than 3,600.
Oliver Cormack, 23, who hails from the north-west of the capital but went to university in Northumbria, says the idea sprang out of his time on an international entrepreneurship accelerator programme and his love for the Fringe – where he has worked as a leafleter and as an unofficial tour guide for American tourists.
Speaking today, he said: “I’ve always been super passionate about Edinburgh, and the Fringe was always a massive family thing for us growing up.
“And I just love watching the city fill up with people from all across the world every August, and I’ve worked it for a few summers actually.
“The map kind of came out of that, to be honest: a mix between my experience on the accelerator and my own personal experience working at the Fringe.
“I just thought it’d be a fun idea to make the Fringe easier to navigate, especially for the international visitors, and hopefully bring more people to more shows, which is good for the whole city.”
Oliver, a coder and entrepreneur, added that, despite time spent in New York, San Francisco and Italy with the accelerator programme, he always felt compelled to come back to the city.
He said: “I’ve been going to the Fringe since I was a wee man with my family and it’s always the same: lovely chaos.
“There’s just so much brilliant stuff on, and I feel like I can picture myself standing on the Royal Mile with a fistful of flyers, trying to work out what to see.
“So, I just thought there was maybe a way to see it all in one place, laid out clearly. So I kind of just built the thing I always wished existed.”
Oliver developed the site with his sister Jessica, 20, a graphic designer, who designed the site and applied the aesthetics.
He described how their collaboration came to be: “My sister’s a very talented graphic designer and just got her first internship, so I was very proud of her, and I was looking at her different work and what she’d been making, and I said, ‘Jessica, we could totally do this together’.
“And it kind of started as what was meant to be just a fun project to now something which people are finding very interesting and useful.”
He said their tight relationship makes the dynamic work, despite the odd sibling spat:
“Me and Jessica are very close, and it almost felt like a no-brainer considering how talented she is.
“I feel lucky to be able to work with her and give her an opportunity to display her work.
“We’ve obviously had our moments in development where we’ve had some disagreements, but that’s the classic sibling dynamic.”
He added: “It’s worked out much better than I thought, and much better than my parents thought, you could say.”
Oliver said he is eager to put the website to the test during the Fringe this year, and is seeking commercial partners interested in advertising on the website, although the site will remain free to use.
He said that Fringe organisers have been impressed by the map: “I actually did meet the CEO of the Fringe last week, Tony Lankester.
“I think he’s absolutely brilliant, and I came away super inspired by his vision for the festival and the new Fringe headquarters.
“It’s a fan-built guide sitting alongside the Fringe, we’re not a part of it, and I hope to make sure we’re always clear about that.”
He added: “They’ve [Fringe organisers] been very supportive, and we’re not taking any traffic away from them. If anything, we’re sitting on a layer on top to help drive more interest.”
The site is available in Chinese, Spanish, French, and German and is live right now, ready for this year’s Fringe.
