Underbelly (events promoter)

Last updated

Underbelly
Company typePrivate company
IndustryArts
Founded2000
Headquarters London, England
ProductsTheatre and comedy promotion, productions and Venues
Subsidiaries Underbelly Promotions Limited
Website http://www.underbelly.co.uk
Uddberbelly Festival in Hong Kong during December 2015 Uddberbelly Hong Kong 201512.jpg
Uddberbelly Festival in Hong Kong during December 2015

Underbelly is a live events producer and venue operator, known as one of the "Big Four" venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [1] From its roots as a Fringe venue, the company has expanded to include a festival on London's South Bank and seasonal events in Edinburgh and elsewhere.

Contents

History

Underbelly was founded in 2000 by directors Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood to operate one venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [2] [3] In 2001, Underbelly Limited was formed to turn the Underbelly venue into a professional operation. Over the years, Underbelly's operations have expanded beyond the Cowgate, to include a hub space known as the Udderbelly pasture in George Square and a Circus Hub on The Meadows, as well as a hub in Bristo Square. Each Underbelly venue is recognisable by its purple, cow-themed branding, most notably a large, upside-down, inflatable purple cow which serves as one of the venues. In 2015, Underbelly hosted over 130 shows at the Fringe.

For many years, Underbelly also co-ordinated "Edinburgh's Christmas" - a funfair, market and events programme in the eastern section of Princes Street Gardens, but stopped in 2022.

Other locations

In 2009, in collaboration with the Southbank Centre in London, the company launched Udderbelly Festival, an eight-week programme of comedy, circus and family entertainment inside the upside-down purple cow venue. By 2015, the festival had extended to fifteen weeks. The festival won Best Festival at the London Lifestyle Awards in 2012. [4]

In 2012, Underbelly also launched London Wonderground, a programme of circus, cabaret and family entertainment, based in a 1920s Paradiso Spiegeltent. [5] The Wonderground also presents oddities, curiosities and eccentricities such as the 60-metre high Star Flyer which gives views over London's rooftops.

Other London events which Underbelly has produced include West End Live in Trafalgar Square, [6] Pride in London (2014–18), [7] [8] and the Rekorderlig Cider Lodge at Southbank Centre's Winter Festival. In 2015, Underbelly produced the official Fanzone at the Rugby Union World Cup in Richmond.

Elsewhere, the company produced the Comedy Hullabaloo in Stratford-Upon-Avon (2013–15) and the Udderbelly Festival in Hong Kong. [9] [10]

Underbelly Cowgate

Underbelly
Underbelly front entrance.jpg
The front entrance to Underbelly on Cowgate
Underbelly (events promoter)
Address Cowgate, Edinburgh. (entrance also on Victoria Street)
Edinburgh
Scotland
Coordinates 55°56′54″N3°11′33″W / 55.94833°N 3.19250°W / 55.94833; -3.19250
Owner Edinburgh City Council
Opened2000 (annually during the Edinburgh Fringe only)
Website
www.underbelly.co.uk
The floor plan for Underbelly. Underbelly floor plan.jpg
The floor plan for Underbelly.

The Underbelly is a venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe off Cowgate. From 2001 to 2004, Underbelly was the only venue operated by the promoter.

Underbelly was first opened in 2000, as a small performance venue for five shows brought to the Fringe by Double Edge Drama. The Double Edge directors had heard of the venue through a production of Gargantua , performed by the Scottish company, Grid Iron in the vaults below the central library of Edinburgh. The site was discovered by Judith Doherty and named 'Underbelly' by Judith and Ben Harrison. Grid Iron staged a show there. The location's and Double Edge's shows won a Fringe First for its critically acclaimed productions of Bent and Marat Sade.

The venue now includes a number of different performance spaces, with themed names such as Iron Belly, White Belly and Big Belly. The Belly Laugh (originally the Belly Bar) was also used for late night cabaret as well as the venue's second bar. Space downstairs which is now used for Belly Dance was used to exhibit a film installation by Nick Hornby.

In 2002, The Underbelly was renamed The Smirnoff Underbelly. The number of performance spaces was increased to include the Belly Button and Belly Laugh comedy venues and a third bar, the Jelly Belly, to the first floor. The number of shows increased from 18 to over 50. In 2003, the Belly Dancer was soundproofed to ensure that it can be used throughout the day without disrupting other performances. This allowed Underbelly to team up with Forth One 97.3 to host a series of free live music gigs every night in the Belly Dancer, known as the Forth One Fringe. These gigs have included Mark Owen, Ocean Colour Scene and Skin and Keane In 2004, the Delhi Belly space was added. The bars were rearranged to create more space and ease congestion and queuing. Finally, a brand new large box office was created in one of the rooms off the front alley, which freed up the old box office to become a larger and more usable publicity office with a sofa and coffee. The shows at the Underbelly venue won a record number of awards, including the Perrier Award for Jackson's Way; Fringe First Awards for The Ignatius Trail, Manchester Girl and The Jammer; Perrier Newcomer Nomination for Joanna Neary in Joanna Neary is Not Feeling Herself; and an Amnesty Award nomination for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.

Criticisms

2019 Christmas Market

In December 2019, Underbelly came under scrutiny for acquiring the East Princes Street Gardens without planning permission. [11] The markets were marked by safety concerns that were kept secret by the City of Edinburgh Council [12] and for the subsequent damage done to the gardens from their operations, that also included criticism over handling of memorial benches moved to make way for the market. [13] [14] An investigation into the £150,000 damage to the gardens caused by the market has been launched. [15] [16]

In response, Edinburgh council agreed to consider moving the markets, and launched an internal investigation into whether correct processes were followed in granting a two-year contract extension to the operator. [17]

Further criticism has arisen after the longstanding tradition of the Loony Dook, held annually on the morning of January 1 every year, became a ticketed event which quickly sold out. Underbelly has been criticised for profiteering from a public tradition, as well as raising the price of tickets for profit. [18] [19]

2019 Hogmanay

Underbelly, in collaboration with Edinburgh city council, came under criticism in 2019 for restrictions on residents during Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebration. The company restricted access to residents and limited the number of guests they could invite by providing a limited number of "residents' passes" per household. The company was also accused of passing on resident's details to police for 'security checks'. The claims were disputed by councillors, who stated the arrangements were "just the same as they have been in previous years". [20] [21] [22]

Labour party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothian, Sarah Boyack, said that it "should not be up to a private company to decide how many people they can have in their homes" and warned that it impacted private family events. [21]

Labour conditions

During the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Edinburgh festival, and the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Hogmanay celebrations, Underbelly have been criticised for exploitation and mistreatment of its staff, with accusations of underpayment and non-payment, poor accommodation for its staff, and poor management. [23] [24] [25] [26] In the 2018 Fringe Festival, Underbelly were criticised for unfair labour practices in the course of the Fair Fringe campaign to ensure the companies paid the minimum wage, observed legal limits on working hours and did not use unpaid volunteers. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Festival Fringe</span> Arts festival

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,317 different shows across 262 venues from 58 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fringe theatre</span> Theatre that is experimental in style or subject matter

Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In London, the fringe are small-scale theatres, many of them located above pubs, and the equivalent to New York's Off-Off-Broadway theatres and Europe's "free theatre" groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowgate</span> Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The Cowgate is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about 550 yards (500 m) southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the elevated streets of South Bridge and George IV Bridge. It meets the Grassmarket at its west end and Holyrood Road to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princes Street Gardens</span> Park in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Princes Street Gardens are two adjacent public parks in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The Gardens were created in the 1820s following the long draining of the Nor Loch and building of the New Town, beginning in the 1760s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilded Balloon</span>

Gilded Balloon is a producer and promoter of live entertainment events, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and best known as one of the Big Four venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each August.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Vaults</span> Chambers under the South Bridge

The Edinburgh Vaults or South Bridge Vaults are a series of chambers formed in the nineteen arches of the South Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland. South Bridge was part of the South Bridge Act 1785 and was completed in 1788. For around 30 years, the vaults were used to house taverns, workshops for cobblers and other tradesmen, as well as storage space for said merchants. In later years, the vaults were a hotspot for the homeless and for criminal activity such as illegal gambling taverns, illegal whisky distillery and, according to rumour, bodysnatchers stored corpses there overnight. There is however no proof that the serial killers Burke and Hare ever used the vaults.

Craig Hill is a Scottish comedian, TV presenter and actor known for his cheeky, irreverent and camp act.

udderBELLY

The Udderbelly is an upside-down giant purple cow tent owned by the event venue and management company Underbelly, originally sponsored by E4 as the "E4 udderBELLY".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Fringe</span>

The Free Fringe is an organisation that promotes free shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, every August.

Chris Cox is a mentalist magician – a self-proclaimed "mind reader who can't read minds". On television he stars in "Chris Cox's Mind Blowing Magic" on CBBC & BBC iPlayer and is "The Geek" in the award-winning Killer Magic on BBC Three. He is the only mind reader in history to have played Broadway, London's West End, The Kennedy Centre and Sydney Opera House. He stars in touring stage show The Illusionists and in the West End in Impossible. In his radio career Chris was the writer and producer for Matt Edmondson on BBC Radio 1; the assistant producer on The Chris Moyles Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Comedy Festival</span> Short-lived festival of August 2008 and 2009

Edinburgh Comedy Festival was a short-lived festival of comedy shows which operated during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2008 and 2009. Effectively a marketing campaign for the "Big Four" venues at the Fringe - Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly - the designation was quietly dropped after widespread media and industry criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh's Hogmanay</span> Observance of Hogmanay

Edinburgh's Hogmanay is the celebrations and observance of Hogmanay—the Scottish celebration of the New Year—held in the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh. The fireworks display at Edinburgh Castle are broadcast on television in Scotland, such as BBC Scotland's Hogmanay, as well as Hogmanay celebration broadcasts by STV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristo Square</span>

Bristo Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, is a public space on the estate of the University of Edinburgh. It lies in the south of the city, between George IV Bridge and George Square.

The 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 59th Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh)</span> Historic site

The Assembly Rooms are meeting halls in central Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally solely a meeting place for social gatherings, it is now also used as an arts venue and for public events, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Hogmanay celebrations. There are four rooms, with moveable chairs or tables, that are used year-round and are available for private functions: Music Hall, Ballroom, Supper Room and Edinburgh Suite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frisky & Mannish</span> British musical comedy double act

Frisky & Mannish is a British musical comedy double act, created and performed by singer Laura Corcoran and pianist-singer Matthew Floyd Jones. Known for their pop music parodies, the duo have toured the fringe festival and comedy festival circuits in the United Kingdom and Australia, and appeared on a number of British television and radio programmes.

Stoats is a British company which sells porridge and other oat based products based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Stoats was founded in 2005 and retails in Britain and other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loony Dook</span>

The Loony Dook is an annual event held on New Year's Day in which people dive into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth at South Queensferry, often in fancy dress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holden Street Theatres</span> Theatre in Adelaide, South Australia

Holden Street Theatres (HST) is a South Australian performing arts theatre complex in Hindmarsh, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide. It is housed in the heritage-listed All Saints' Anglican Church complex. The complex includes three performance spaces: The Studio, The Arch and The Bar, and is home to the Holden Street Theatre Company.

Ticker is a one person play written and performed by Tom Machell. In May 2019, it previewed at various London Theatre venues including Theatre 503 and The Bunker Theatre before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The play premiered in August at Underbelly, Cowgate. In November 2019, the production transferred to Alphabetti Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne and in 2021 to The Turbine Theatre at Battersea Power Station. The play was printed by PlayDead Press and Produced By Fight In The Dog in association with United Agents.

References

  1. ↑ Ferguson, Brian (1 April 2020). "'Big four' Edinburgh Fringe venues refuse to give up on staging shows this year". Edinburgh Evening News.
  2. ↑ Williams, Holly (17 August 2017). "Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam". The Stage.
  3. ↑ Cooke, Chris (10 August 2018). "The Venue Directors: Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood from Underbelly". ThreeWeeks Edinburgh.
  4. ↑ London Lifestyle Awards - London Festival of the Year to E4 Udderbelly (Video). 22 November 2012.
  5. ↑ McLean, Pauline (9 May 2012). "Pastures new for Udderbelly promoters". BBC News.
  6. ↑ Harding, Simon (8 March 2022). "Underbelly Festivals set to return to London". London Theatre Breaks.
  7. ↑ Clift, Caroline (2 June 2014). "Underbelly wins four-year contract to produce Pride in London". StandOut Magazine.
  8. ↑ Hall, Tom (27 April 2018). "Pride reappoints innovision". Access All Areas.
  9. ↑ Lugg, Ben (23 February 2016). "Plug pulled on Comedy Hullabaloo". Stratford Herald.
  10. ↑ Awde, Nick (21 January 2016). "Underbelly: udderly at home in the Far East". The Stage.
  11. ↑ BBC News (19 February 2020). "Edinburgh's Christmas: Underbelly still has not applied for full planning permission". BBC News.
  12. ↑ Conor Matchett (13 February 2020). "Fears over Edinburgh Christmas Market safety kept secret by city council despite public reassurances". Edinburgh Evening News.
  13. ↑ Claire Galloway (14 January 2020). "Edinburgh residents furious as Princes Street Gardens turns into 'mudflat' after Christmas markets". Edinburgh Live.
  14. ↑ Angie Brown (30 October 2019). "Edinburgh council leader orders urgent action over dumped memorial benches". BBC News.
  15. ↑ Conor Matchett (9 July 2020). "£150,000 bill to repair East Princes Street Gardens after Christmas Market". Edinburgh Evening News.
  16. ↑ Record Reporter (9 July 2020). "Mud problems at Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens caused by Christmas markets cost over £150k to fix". Daily Record.
  17. ↑ "Edinburgh's Christmas: Councillors look into moving next year's market". BBC News. 13 November 2019.
  18. ↑ Elsa Maishman (1 January 2020). "Underbelly can get in the sea". Edinburgh Evening News.
  19. ↑ Phyllis Stephen (4 January 2020). "Edinburgh's Hogmanay – The Loony Dook 2020 – sold out or sell out?". The Edinburgh Reporter.
  20. ↑ Libby Brooks (26 December 2019). "Hogmanay fury as Edinburgh residents told to apply for access to own homes". The Guardian.
  21. 1 2 Chloe Chaplain (24 December 2019). "Some Edinburgh residents will need special passes to access their own homes during Hogmanay event". iNews.
  22. ↑ Marc Horne (24 December 2019). "Hogmanay revellers told they need permission to party in own homes".
  23. ↑ Chortle (9 August 2017). "Fringe workers are being exploited". Chortle.
  24. ↑ Eve Livingston (15 August 2017). "The Secret Exploitation at the Edinburgh Fringe". Vice.
  25. ↑ BBC News (29 November 2017). "Edinburgh's Hogmanay 'exploiting people'". BBC News.
  26. ↑ Brian Ferguson (29 July 2019). "Damning new report exposes 'terrible' and 'shameful' working conditions at Edinburgh Festival Fringe". Commonspace.
  27. ↑ Sean C M Bell (10 August 2018). "War of words breaks out between Underbelly and union organiser over employment conditions of Fringe staff". Commonspace.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.