The secret to standing out at the Edinburgh Fringe

By Euan Hunter

Every August, Edinburgh turns into a celebration of performing art, theatre, culture and comedy. Thousands of shows fight for coverage, resulting in one of the most competitive PR environments you could ever be in. I could always imagine how hard that fight would be, and so approached my first Fringe at an agency with trepidation. It has been eye-opening to see firsthand just how competitive the landscape is, and I quickly learnt how to find an edge. 

There’s an abundance of creativity, humour and talent -  so how can you standout and get that vital coverage over so many equally brilliant performers?

The answer I found doesn't just rely on larger posters or louder stunts, but in the human behind the show. By shifting the focus to the performer, their story, their struggles, their lives, the show does not get lost in the message - it gets elevated. 

The often inspiring experience that lies behind the creativity and art these performers bring to the Fringe serves as a powerful story. Being able to sympathise with, and relate to these human experiences can cut through the noise of so many shows, and transform an event listing into a news story.

Take Kaely Michels-Gualtieri, for example. For over a decade, her entire world was suspended forty feet in the air as a solo swinging trapeze artist for Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. But when a series of severe injuries permanently grounded her, she was forced to confront a terrifying question - who are you when the art form that defined your life vanishes overnight?

Instead of walking away from storytelling, Kaely pivoted to academia, earning a Cambridge degree and turning that profound sense of loss into her new Fringe musical, 1 Night at Ford’s Theatre. Her show doesn't just retell Abraham Lincoln’s assassination; it explores the assassin's brother, Edwin Booth - an actor forced to rethink his identity and return to the stage after an unthinkable tragedy destroyed his family's legacy. Kaely’s own physical heartbreak gave her the emotional key to understand Edwin’s struggle, creating a powerful bridge between her past life and her present work. That vulnerability struck a chord, securing feature pieces in the likes of Theatre Village and recommended in round-ups like Muddy Stilettos.

Sometimes, the human story is about confronting society's prejudices, taking ownership of it, and thus stripping the power of hate from it. In Damn Me (to Hell), performer Iftach Jephthah Ophir takes on the task of playing Adolf Hitler, but dressed head-to-toe in neon pink as "Eddie" at the gates of Hell. On the surface, it sounds like pure provocation. But look closer, and you find a deeply personal reckoning.

As a gay, Jewish artist, Ophir isn't using shock tactics for publicity; he is stepping into the boots of hatred to disarm it entirely. By wearing his heart where a swastika used to be, Ophir transforms dark history into a story about togetherness. That story of personal identity and satirical confrontation to oppression is inspiring, and resulted with coverage in Broadway World.

Resilience also takes the form of daily defiance. The creative duo behind Slade Wolfe Enterprises — Lexi Wolfe and Andrew Slade — are bringing a trio of solo historical productions to the festival (After Shakespeare, A Forgotten Woman: Mrs Oscar Wilde, and 1 King, 2 Princes & Shakespeare’s Lie). Offstage, however, their very presence at the Fringe is a triumph over physical and mental struggles.

Lexi creates and performs while managing fibromyalgia and ADHD, constantly adapting her physical staging to cope with chronic pain and exhaustion. Andrew returned to performing after surviving a 15-foot fall that required bilateral knee surgery, alongside a grueling battle with long covid that left him with chronic fatigue and memory loss. 

As neurodivergent artists navigating an industry rarely built for accessibility, they know firsthand what it feels like to be misunderstood or written off. That experience is the motivation behind their plays, which give voice to historical figures silenced or maligned by popular myth. That feeling of being written off or misunderstood is one many can relate to, and resulted in coverage across not just Fringe media with Theatre News but across the UK with The Star and In Your Area.

Scientist and musician Steve Garrett first set foot on Antarctica in the 1980s, when the southern continent felt like an untouched natural wonder. Returning decades later, the physical shifts in the landscape were devastatingly real.

Garrett combined his scientific and musical talents to reflect this and raise awareness, creating The Song of the Ice. He translated carbon dioxide data embedded in ancient ice cores and the sounds of subterranean icequakes into an atmospheric musical score. His show bridges forty years of personal reflection with cutting-edge polar science, making the climate emergency something audiences can feel and connect to in a new, touching way. The climate crisis being translated in a science-meets-art narrative captured the attention of culture writers, leading to a diverse spread of coverage that most Fringe acts don’t get, including Friends of the Earth, and even print coverage in Scottish Field. 

When you look across the shows we supported at the Fringe this year, there is a variety of genres, backgrounds and cultures. However, when you dive into who they are and why they are here, a unifying thread connects them all - the inspiring people that created them.

In a festival hosting thousands of shows, the ones that break through aren't always the ones shouting the loudest. They are the ones that audiences and journalists can resonate with. Through exploring the journey that made the show what it is, you can find the type of noise that will make people stop and listen.