Wednesday July 22nd 2026
Elf Lyons during her interview with the Midlothian View
Written by Glasgow View Reporter, Liam Eunson
“I honestly think Edinburgh will lose the festival”, award-winning Fringe performer Elf Lyons explained when discussing the rising cost of the Fringe.
Comedian and theatre-maker Elf Lyons has been attending and performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since she was 18, bringing her top-class and personal comedy to the annual festival since becoming a professional comedian at 24. Now 35, she is returning to the festival with a new performance despite concerns with Edinburgh’s rising costs.
Explaining that she believes “we’re on the tail end of the beauty of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival”, the rising costs specifically surrounding accommodation has become a major factor in planning a show with Elf highlighting that she books accommodation months prior.
“How is any young artist, someone who’s new, going to be discovered if you haven’t got a team behind you or haven’t smashed it online”, she explained, “I think the Fringe can’t keep growing, there needs to almost be an ethical point of going, when is this wrong?”
With the rising costs pricing many young artists out of the city during the Fringe, this may only get worse with the introduction of a tourist tax that goes into effect tomorrow (23 July) which will see a 5% charge added to accommodation costs on nightly stays for visitors to the capital.
The cost of a room when Elf first experienced the Fringe 17 years ago was around £300 pcm but now she is paying around £4,500 for a three bedroom flat near the Meadows that she shares with other performers.
“When I was first there, it was full of 18 year olds, now the only 18 year olds you see are technicians working”, she explained.
“It was obviously much more affordable back then. I don’t think people quite appreciate why the Fringe is so valuable. I think people grudge it when it’s there or the tourists but I think we’re going to lose a lot of access to so many talented people coming to share their work in this beautiful global festival.”
Edinburgh's population almost doubles during the festival, increasing from around 530,000 residents to around one million people
Festival organisers are attempting to combat skyrocketing costs through many different avenues, such as venue-led collaborations, adjusted booking fees and targeted financial aid. Before the 2025 festival, organisers raised the commission rate by 5% aiming to ‘address rising costs of software, technology, human resources and customer services’ but this may not completely mend issues revolving around costs for performers and agencies.
Alongside last year’s changes, in 2022 the Fringe Society (the official charity and governing organisation that supports the festival), has operated a fee rebate process after payout, meaning a share of revenue from the box office booking fees is redistributed. Since this implementation, they have distributed over £1.8 million to the Fringe community.
Despite the Fringe Society attempting to combat rising costs, accommodation is one of the key issues with private companies and landlords drastically raising prices during the month of August.
Based in London and having a career that has received much recognition including recently winning the Sky Arts Award for Comedy 2025, Elf has always held a large space in both her heart and efforts for the festival, explaining she wouldn’t have seen success if it wasn’t for the Fringe.
“It’s the epicentre for me of how I got really good because you get to watch and you learn from everyone else. It’s like a beautiful fountain of knowledge, the Edinburgh Fringe.”
Ely Lyons is the Women On The Edge promotional content
Elf’s 2026 performance is her most personal and intimate yet, ‘Elf Lyons Is The Women on the Edge’ is inspired by the breakdown of her engagement whilst she was alone on tour in Australia where she was still expected to walk onstage every night and entertain audiences as though nothing was happening.
Night after night, Elf was expected to continue touring, performing and being funny, whilst a breakup was happening. Inspired by the end of her relationship during an international tour, the show examines heartbreak, dissociation, resilience and the strange performative nature of “holding it together” when your personal life is falling apart.
Performing as one of her clown characters, the show acts as if Elf isn’t there, portraying this tragic part of her life as someone else telling the story. Tying in themes such as Apollo 13, it discusses the reliance of a woman on the verge of a breakdown and the realisation that the world doesn’t stop turning despite going through traumatic circumstances
When asked about the effects and resilience of telling a personal story night after night on stage in front of large audiences, she described the vulnerability of how she feels at the end of her performance.
“This show is much more, in terms of how the audience feel towards you afterwards, it’s considerably different from my previous shows. I suppose it’s vulnerable because people do talk to you differently after the show and I haven’t quite made peace with that yet.”
Using the analogy of the Olympics, she explained that each year she aims to get better and better with this year’s performance being very physically exhausting.
“The show is physically exhausting because I’m doing it on my tiptoes the whole way through the show. Muscular and physically wise, it’s quite gruelling. You can’t afford to have a show where you’re half cut, you have to be on top form.”
Elf discussed the importance of socialising with other performers in her spare time, highlighting the power of collaboration that is often sparked during the festival. Explaining that the powerful feeling of the Fringe when she was young and volunteering at venues was a highlight each year. But this may be affected with many young and up-coming performers attempting to create a name for themselves now being unable to afford attending the festival.
Elf explained: “You can’t take risks, like there’s so many newcomers who are so anxious because it is costing them an arm and leg to be here. If I was starting now, I don’t know how I would do it. You are going to price out a lot of communities and end up getting people who can afford it and who have a different spending attitude.”
With the exact number of performers reaching 25,000 in one year, from around 71 countries, since the festival began in 1947, the Fringe has been known for giving up and comers a chance to show their talents away from the stress of touring but this may be dying due to the forever growing cost of Edinburgh and the Fringe with accommodation costs being a vital financial factor to artists when planning to attend.
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