Samira crowns fine festival for Gilded Balloon - Karen Koren

Samira Banks is the 36th winner of the iconic So You Think You're Funny? Award

Well, it’s the end of another incredible Fringe for Gilded Balloon as August wraps up. It was a busy month to say the least - we hosted over 185 shows, thousands of audience members, 3354 performances and issued 189,177 tickets.

Among all those performances, I had a few favourites - shows from Jack Docherty, Michelle Brasier and Jay Lafferty were personal highlights.

I went to see their shows at the very start of the month during previews and then returned in the closing days to see them perform to sold out crowds - it’s brilliant to see how the shows develop as the Fringe marches on with the best performers able to adapt to audience reactions each night.

Across our three venues at Teviot, the National Museum of Scotland and Patter Hoose we hosted some of the UK’s biggest comedians including a triumphant return for Rhod Gilbert’s phenomenal Work in Progress and Gary Tank Commander’s chat show, with guests including Jack Whitehall and Sir Chris Hoy.

We at the Gilded Balloon feel passionately about is supporting new comedians with our comedy newcomer competition So You Think You’re Funny?

This year, we crowned Samira Banks as 2023’s winner, with Christopher Donovan second and Lizzie Norm third. We also programmed debut shows from SYTYF alumni including Shane Daniel Byrne, Kathy Maniura and Joshua Bethania - these are names to watch out for and comedians who we believe will be headlining shows across the UK in years to come.

Gilded Balloon is one the of longest-running Fringe venues, but 2023 has been a little different for our family, with Katy, my daughter welcoming her first baby Penny Ellen just a few weeks before the chaos and mayhem of August kicked off.

Customers and staff alike got used to the sight of Katy and little Penny wandering round our venues making sure everything was in order.

Although the team and I missed having Katy’s expertise around as much as normal, she’s managed to spend some quality time with her new little family and we’re sure Penny will become a regular addition to the Gilded Balloon team in future years!