Red61 empowers and ignites live, digital and hybrid experiences at the (world's largest arts festival) 2021 Edinburgh Festival Fringe through the launch of new industry-leading digital solutions.



Red61 is proud of its ability to provide innovative solutions to support its clients as the world continues to recover and continually shift in light of the ongoing impact of COVID-19. This year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe came to life on August 6, 2021 with an exciting programme of over 900 shows. As always, this year's festival was a diverse and exciting selection of work from the worlds of theatre, dance, circus, comedy, music, musicals and opera, cabaret and variety, children's shows, spoken word, exhibitions, events and more.



In response to the Fringe's need to deliver a safe festival this year that consisted of in-person attendance and online shows, Red61 developed and launched a new set of tools focused on the creation, delivery and reconciliation of hybrid events and festivals. The cornerstone of these tools is the new Red61 plug and play Digital Wallet, which seamlessly integrates across all sales channels and customer facing apps. Festival customers can now easily purchase, manage and access digital, live or hybrid events in a beautifully designed Digital Wallet, keeping everything they need at their "digital" fingertips.



Red61 has integrated with several leading digital content providers including Brightcove, Vidflex, Vimeo, and YouTube enabling live streaming and on-demand content to be viewed right within the Digital Wallet, eliminating the need for multiple logins to 3rd party platforms. In addition, the Fringe were able to set up flexible ticket pricing options including structured pricing, pay what you can, free tickets, as well as options to pay or donate after viewing an event.



"Our top priority during the planning for 2021 in the context of COVID-19 was to ensure the Fringe remained a valuable place for artists to have their work seen by audiences and industry. Our job is to allow the Fringe's thousands of artists to deliver that work in the way best suited to them, including on a range of digital platforms, but we also have to ensure that access is controlled, enabling them to generate much needed revenue. The solution developed by Red61 allowed us to offer secure and quality ticketing services in a multi-platform environment to best support our artists to engage audiences and showcase their work effectively. Our long-standing partnership with Red61 is grounded in a shared commitment and passion to help artists and audiences find one another and to offer high quality box office and ticketing services to all," says Lyndsey Jackson, Deputy Chief Executive of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.



For the Fringe, the new digital offering naturally supports another key objective to offer broad accessibility. The digital experiences also extended to providing greater accessibility in a completely digital platform to provide easier ways to facilitate BSL interpretations, captioning - timing and spacing, and subtitling through the Fringe Player, where digital interpreters were employed. The Digital Wallet enabled greater accessibility depending on where audiences and artists were or are in the world - many of whom could be in a high risk category and shielding, unable to get a visa, had budget restraints, or were not able to willing to participate in person.



As the evolution of digital hybrid events expands and shifts, Red61 will continue to work with key partners to support digital delivery as a channel for live and immersive events as our industry experiments with new methods to connect with its customers.



Clients were also able to benefit from Red61's sophisticated ticketless solution with easy scanning and tablet sales functionality to reduce the interaction between customers and staff and help to maintain social distancing.



"Venues, festivals and event organisers have had to quickly adapt to a new environment, and we've been there to support their transition all the way. In typically Red61 style, we haven't just provided a video platform, our new Digital Wallet provides a seamless solution that connects into multiple video platforms and plays within your own website. And of course, we create large ticketing networks, so it was essential to be able to cross sell digital content from other organisations. This is a truly unique solution that offers a variety of options that make it easy to find the right channel to connect with your audience as our landscape evolves, " says Tony Davey, CEO of Red61.



About Red61:

Red61 is a leading worldwide Ticketing as a Service software company, providing audience management and ticketing solutions for festivals, venues, agencies, and attractions. Red61 makes the ticketing process quick, easy, simple, and organised for clients across the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Papua, New Guinea, and now the United States. From the very beginning as the ticketing solution for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the world's largest arts festival, Red61 has worked collaboratively with our clients in a spirit of constant innovation to completely transform the customer journey and increase sales. For more information please visit: www.red61.com



About Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society:

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is the charity that underpins the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe. It was established in 1958 by a group of artists to act as the custodian of Fringe values and as an agent for the festival's continual flexibility and reinvention. We exist to support and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe; to provide information and assistance to audiences; and to celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world. Based on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the Society has a small team of staff who work year-round to assist all the artists and audiences who make the festival one of the best loved performing arts events on the planet.