Ed Fringe, 2019 – The Greenhouse Theatre

The first-ever outing of The Greenhouse took place at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019, with humbler goals. We set out to build a greener Fringe.

As the largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival sets a huge example to artists all over the globe, but it has a hugely negative environmental impact. To quote part of our 2019 mission statement:

The Fringe recommends that most shows think ‘in the low thousands’ when ordering flyers. There are over 3,500 shows each year at The Fringe. Taking a low-end estimate that each show orders just 1,000 flyers, that’s over 3.5 million flyers in total. A flyer weighs about 6 grams — that’s over 21 tonnes of paper waste. At a low-end estimate.

That’s before we even start thinking about travel to and from the festival, waste generated by all the food and drink, and pressures on the electricity grid in Edinburgh. We don’t think it has to be this way. The Greenhouse 2019 demonstrated that artists could take the lead in ensuring the festival’s sustainability. We’ll be returning to the Fringe over the coming years, working closely with organisations like the University of Edinburgh and Staging Change to help ensure a greener future at The Fringe and beyond.

If you’d like to learn a little bit more about The Greenhouse 2019, you can take a look at our old website by following this link. Alternatively, head to our homepage for videos, photos, and press quotes that provide a bit more context.