Rain not able to ruin fabulous Fringe launch party.

The skies may have been grey but party goers painted the town red as the Fringe Festival held its official launch extravaganza last night.

Edinburgh Quay was the venue and more than 2500 guests came to celebrate the start of the 61st Fringe Festival.

Party organiser Leroy Harris, Marketing Manager with the Fringe Office said: “The rain could not be helped but everyone had a good time anyway. It was the perfect venue as there was plenty of indoor shelter."

The Fringe put on a spectacular show featuring music, cabaret and comedy. Some of the stars playing included comedians Paul Sinha and Andrew O’Neil, breakdancing from Spin Odyssey, and a hilarious musical romp from the Sound of Music Drag Show. Comperes for the night were Mrs Barbara Nice and Ali Roberts.

The event was sponsored by the Scottish Executive. 

It may have been a cold and wet night, but Fringe organisers do put on the warmest of welcomes.

Here are some Fringe 2007 Facts:

• Fringe 2007 features 31,000 performances of 2,050 shows in 250 venues

• An estimated 18,626 performers will be on stage at the Fringe in 2007

• Theatre makes up 31% of the programme followed closely by Comedy with 30.5% Music is next with 17%, Children’s 5.5% Musicals & Opera totals 5%. Dance & Physical Theatre weighs in at 4.5% Exhibitions is 3.5% and finally Events 3%.

• 40% (815) of the shows are world premiers and from the remaining 60% of the programme 236 of the shows are European premieres and 93 are UK premieres.

• 304 shows at the Fringe are absolutely free

• At the Fringe in 2006 56,368 tickets were bought in its first week of ticket sales 

• 1.5 million tickets (1,531,606) were sold during the 2006 Fringe smashing all arts festival records

• The Fringe sells 108% more tickets than it did only 10 years ago (734,508 in 1996, 1,531,606 in 2006)

• The Fringe has a 75% market share of all attendance at Edinburgh’s year-round festivals and annually generates around £75 million for the Edinburgh and Scottish economy.

Related links 

Fringe launch party 2007: seen on the night 

Official Edinburgh Fringe website