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Underbelly Venues today
Underbelly is now very much at the forefront of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a major series of venues, but venues that still retains their site-specific, intimate and unique atmosphere. Having started as a single venue for five shows, Underbelly will in 2007 be programming over 140 shows into twelve perfomance spaces in three venues (plus four further site-specific venues) with an emphasis on new writing and new talent. In recent years, our shows have won a huge number of awards, including all the main awards for comedy and theatre (full list) and we have hosted bands such as Keane, The Thrills, Athlete and Nizlopi who are all now at the top of the British music scene.
Underbelly continues to grow with the new addition in 2007 of McEwan Hall which hosted 1,000 people dancing silently in Silent Disco. Underbelly now has a full range of spaces and is able to host some of the best and most popular theatre and comedy the Fringe has to offer. One of these new venues, the E4 UdderBELLY, in the shape of an upturned purple cow about 4 storeys high has became the talking point of the Fringe since it's launch in 2006.
More information on specific venues:
Underbelly Limited
The Underbelly venues are part of Underbelly Limited, an integrated theatre and comedy company encompassing producions, promotions, management and venues. More information on Underbelly Limited's other activities »
Underbelly's history and success
Underbelly was first opened in 2000, as a small performance venue for five shows brought to the Fringe by the long running Fringe company, Double Edge Drama.
The next few years would see Underbelly rapidly grow into one of the most popular and most written about venues on the Fringe. Its atmospheric setting in the former bank vaults under George IV Bridge present performers and public alike with wonderfully atmospheric, site-specific spaces and a real Fringe experience. See our detailed history and highlights
The combination of dilapidated crumbling walls, a challenging and often provocative programme of shows and a loyal following of Underbelly regulars drew many, including founder of the Traverse, Richard De Marco, to suggest that it was the first venue in years to sum up the true spirit of the Fringe.
We hope and intend that this will continue.
Ed and Charlie
