Type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Arts |
Founded | 2001 |
Headquarters | London, England |
Products | Theatre and comedy promotion, productions and Venues |
Subsidiaries | Underbelly Promotions Limited |
Website | http://www.underbelly.co.uk |
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.
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. The original venue, on Edinburgh's Cowgate, now includes a number of different performance spaces, with themed names such as Iron Belly, White Belly and Big Belly. 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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
Performers who have appeared at Underbelly venues since 2000 include:
Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is now administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. It lies ten miles to the north-west of Edinburgh city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing. The prefix South serves to distinguish it from North Queensferry, on the opposite shore of the Forth. Both towns derive their name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century, which continued to operate at the town until 1964, when the Road Bridge was opened.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Underbelly is a venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe off Cowgate. From 2001 to 2004, Underbelly was the only venue operated by Underbelly Limited. In 2005, Underbelly added the Baby Belly venue. In 2006, these venues were joined by the E4 UdderBELLY and the Cow Barn.
Craig Hill is a Scottish comedian, TV presenter and actor known for his cheeky, irreverent and camp act.
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".
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 also stars in touring stage show The Illusionists and in the West End in Impossible. He is the only mind reader in history to play Broadway, London's West End and Sydney Opera House. 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.
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.
Edinburgh's Hogmanay is the observance of Hogmanay—the Scottish celebration of the New Year—held in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 59th Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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. The act's name derives from two incidental characters mentioned in one couplet of Byron's Don Juan: "Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Maevia Mannish, / Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish"
Jeffrey Mirza is a British stand-up comedian and actor.
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.
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.
Assembly is a theatre and comedy promotion company, producer and venue operator. It programmes and promotes entertainment events at venues in Edinburgh, London and Brighton, and is the longest-established of the so-called Big Four promoters at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. Year-round audience numbers at Assembly events are more than 500,000, and the company's artistic director is William Burdett-Coutts.
Yolanda Mercy is a British actress and playwright of Nigerian descent. In addition to her work as a writer and performer, she leads theatre workshops and mentors young artists.
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.