The countdown to our action-packed Edinburgh Fringe has begun. This is the first run of shows we have produced at the festival since 2013 and it’s all down to those lovely people at the Gilded Balloon who have invited us to take part.
Our lunchtime Funny Women Fest will be a great place to start your day with a line up of show highlights, special guests and a feast of the newest and freshest comedy from across the Fringe.
Some of our guests will be visiting the festival for the very first time and we’re proud to give them stage time at the world’s greatest arts festival. Others are seasoned and experienced Fringe performers who will have lots of anecdotes and advice to share with you about surviving the three weeks or how to choose what you are going to see from the hundreds of events on offer!
We already have an array of brilliant funny women lined up to host our shows including Jan Ravens, Ayesha Hazarika, Lynn Ruth Miller, Sooz Kempner, Natalie Allison, Rachel Creeger and more to be announced.
Each day a different line up of funny women and a few funny men will be entertaining you with discussion, debate and comedy along topical themes including ageing, religion, politics, film and sexism.
As with everything we do, we want to give something back to the community that we find ourselves in every August. So, we are teaming up with www.periodpoverty.scot as pioneered by Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland and the Scottish Labour Spokesperson on Inequalities. Monica has been a community activist and trade unionist for several years and is an active campaigner on the issue of period poverty, access to sanitary products and women’s health.
“I’m so pleased that access to period products is high on the agenda during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe,’ Says Monica. “Access is a right, not a luxury and no woman should have to go without sanitary products which are essential to their health. That’s why I’m working on proposals that will make this a universally accessible right in Scotland for all those who menstruate, and I hope as many people as possible can get involved with the consultation.”
We are very proud to be a part of the #PeriodPoverty campaign and we are asking everybody who comes to our show to donate a packet of sanitary pads or tampons which we will distribute to refuges, women’s centres and food banks in Scotland.
Funny Women is at the Gilded Balloon Teviot at midday every day from 2nd to 28th August. For more information on daily line-ups please check our events pages here and to book visit www.gildedballoon.co.uk.
