Gig Buddies helps me see things that I wouldn’t see. If I wasn’t involved with Gig Buddies I wouldn’t go to things like the Edinburgh Fringe or music festivals.
Saturday 6 August 2016, our first Gig Buddies with Thera group social.
AND it was our first Gig Buddies Fringe event!
As part of World Fringe Day we were given free ticket to the Fringe, we went to George Heriots School, for BBC on the Fringe.
In 2017 we went back to the Fringe, but this time it was as part of their new community initiative, Fringe Days Out! We went to 5 events all at George Heriots, for BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals.
We have been part of this amazing community initiative ever since and we’ve lost count of the amount of shows we’ve seen but will try to remember some of the shows we’ve seen here…
Group events, info on carer tickets, and voucher codes all helped me access events.
In 2018 we went to 8 Edinburgh Fringe group socials. Along with Drake Music Scotland we’ve hosted a talk around accessibility for audiences and performers, together we hosted the Fringe’s first ever disabled artists mixer.
I thought the festival was 10/10, I would have never done that before!
How can we ever forget 2019? It’s the year we had our once in a lifetime, legendary Fringin 9-5! We started off by meeting for breakfast, went to 8 Fringe shows, and ended the night in a nightclub, that had a bouncy castle!
We held a talk at Fringe Central to share our experiences on the day. This is also the year one of our members couldn’t access a venue to see Russell Howard, so we created a video to campaign about accessible venues at the Fringe.
I love live bands, it’s great to see live music again. Joseph
We went to our first in person gig since February 2020, on 6 August at the Fringe, the same date that we held our first ever Gig Buddies social in 2016!
In total that August we saw 10 Fringe shows and we had a photo shoot with the Fringe, and they took us for pizza!
2022 we saw 8 Fringe shows. We saw Daniel Sloss, Austentatious and The Lady Boys of Bangkok.
2023 we saw 12 Fringe shows. We saw Susie McCabe, The Black Blues Brothers, Frankie Boyle and Rosie Jones.
I’ve liked Frankie Boyle since the 00’s when he was on Mock the Week. He was funnier at his own show than he was on that! The Black Blues Brothers were incredible! My highlight of the year!
95% of our members who completed our end of year survey for 2023 told us they felt more confident in accessing the Edinburgh Festivals.
2024 we went to 13 Fringe shows, we saw House of Life, Bill’s 44th, Mary Queen of Rock, Laurence Chaney and Sue Perkins. Some of our members went back to see Black Blues Brothers again, without us. We had another rainy pizza party and photo shoot!
Being in a group, and discovering new things together is great. If it wasn’t for Gig Buddies there are so many things I wouldn’t have experienced. Gig Buddies helps you find cool things.
This is the year we were nominated for The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards, and we won their Accessible Awards, Sam and Joseph went to collect our Award.
2025 we went to 31 Fringe shows, a few if the shows we saw were; Bill Bailey, Jaffa Cake the Musical, Rosco Mclelland, Josie Long and Swamplesqe.
I was very surprised when Shrek started taking his clothes off!
The Gig Buddies support and tickets helped me see things that I wouldn’t have known about or be able to afford.
We’ve seen around 95 Fringe shows as a group, and given away many more ticket vouchers to members, so the true number of Fringe shows we have seen thanks to the Edinburgh Fringe is well over 100!
This year we have already planned 34 Fringe group socials thanks to the Fringe Days Out, and we have planned an extra special day on Thursday 6 August to celebrate 10 years of Gig Buddies at the Edinburgh Fringe. Information will be sent out to members and volunteers in July.