Seventh Week of the EdFringe:

This will be an ongoing insight of what it is like as a technician at the Edinburgh Fringe. From our first week to our last, these will be an inside look at what happens behind the scenes that most people don’t get even a glimpse of. This is the seventh week of the EdFringe.

This is the final week of the Edinburgh Fringe for technicians and backstage roles. The shows have finally left and you’re left with the aftermath. Most people think the de-rig starts the first day after shows leave. Those people would be very wrong. At most venues, you start shutting down and tearing everything apart the moment the last show has their things collected. 

For those who have never done an EdFringe de-rig, I’m going to break this down into steps of what comes down first to last. Once the shows have collected their things, you’re in for a long night to get your venue at least partially done. You shut everything down as normal then you tear apart the control station. Now that you have everything unplugged, you can start pulling cables and taking down anything that is rigged if you have access to a ladder.

This brings us to the next step. Every cable on the rig needs to come down with the lights and PA system. Hopefully at this point you have a ladder, or a rigger for larger venues. Bringing the cables down is the easy part. The speakers and lights will need some knowledge of basic knots and rope for you to make a pulley system. When everything is off the rig that’s when the headache begins of taking the truss apart piece by piece. Why is this a headache? Because it involves a truss hammer and lots of banging…

At this point, if you’re at a smaller venue, you can consider this a stopping point for the night and continue over the next few days. If you’re at a large venue, you’ve only just begun. Sometimes the truss can take a while depending on not only the size of the venue but how organised the group you’re working with is as well. Unfortunately, this is the Fringe so everything is less than organised and nothing shows that better than the de-rig with everyone shouting orders and no one actually knowing who the hell is in charge.

The next items in the venues to come out of the venues are finally the stage, panels, and any protective layers you added to your venues. Sometimes these protective layers are molten, carpet covers, even seat covers. Most places would have a bin or somewhere to store these items to be reused next year, but not the Fringe. You take most of this to what is called the “bone yard” a place where all things go to die and eventually binned somewhere. 

With the stage apart, truss disassembled, and everything torn to bits, there is only one thing left to do. Now it’s time to load the truck. Running flight cases is practically an art form, especially up a ramp. But with only a few trucks to load over two days you get them done as quickly as possible and when they’re all loaded you hear someone yell the question “PUB?” And that brings us to the end of the EdFringe this year. See you next year.