(Matt's Part Three article is here)

Sorry, I'd been trying for hours to think of a more satisfying and whimsical opening to this latest column, but in the end, even after 10 years of journalism and a variety of English degrees, I really can't encapsulate in words how much our new status as an award-winner Edinburgh venue means to everyone at Zoo.

Outside the Edinburgh Festival bubble, a Herald Archangel probably doesn't have that much resonance. But for us - especially those of us who were here in the early, very cash-strapped, days when we were desperately scrabbling for audience, press attendance and high-calibre shows - to join the Traverse, Aurora Nova, the Spiegel Garden and the Pleasance (not to mention previous non-venue winners like Steven Berkoff, Alan Cumming, Miranda Richardson and JK Rowling) on the list of Herald Archangel recipients is the most profound vindication of and reward for our efforts since 2002.

Ironically enough our talismanic founder James Mackenzie was being disgruntled at another awards ceremony when I received news of the Archangel. I was manning the phones in the office/small-box-on-wheels while James and the glamorous half of the press team (Emmy and Abigail) went to the Total Theatre Awards hoping to see our breathtaking Czech dance/physical theatre companies DOT 504 and Adriatik collect the accolades they were shortlisted for. Unfortunately this time Zoo came away empty-handed from the Total Theatre event, and James was just moaning by text message about this when I interrupted him with the news that he had been crowned the new Alan Cumming (or something like that).

The Archangel's plaque leads with James Mackenzie's name rather than the company's, but rightly so. We've received this award because The Herald reporters adored our programme, especially the international dance and physical theatre work in Zoo Southside's Main House, and that element of our bill is not only put together virtually entirely by James, but was his vision in the first place. It was James who declared that we weren't going to take the easy option of filling that massive space with musicals, but that we would instead make it a specialised dance and physical theatre venue - a decision that has paid off hugely in terms of both audience numbers and artistic credibility, and has done so in just three years since we took over at Southside.

Having had a total of 75 minutes' sleep (left work at 1am, got home from pub at 3am, answered emails till 4am, got up at 5.15am ready to track down the first copy of The Herald I could find in a newsagent) the previous night, I was a little vague during the actual awards ceremony and eager to get back to the venue where there was no danger of me slurring sleepy nonsense at someone influential. But I was fully revived by Saturday evening, when we celebrated the Archangel with an impromptu party tagged onto the end of the Zoo Pub Quiz we were holding in the Cabaret Bar that night.

After a profound congratulatory speech from production manager - and James's brother - Pete, we presented James with the Archangel again (plus a set of home-made angel wings constructed from that day's Herald and leftover flyers) in front of all the staff and many performers, then had leading technician and outstanding singer/guitarist Big Tim serenade him with a song commissioned by my department about three hours earlier.

And then we drank heavily for some time, as we were entitled to do on a day when nearly a decade of work, expenditure, paranoia and self-doubt was rewarded. Original venue directors James, Pete and Mike were last seen dancing to Stone Roses tunes in the C SoCo bar, in a scene straight out of their teenage years in Hull in the early 1990s. Edinburgh Fringe success has not improved their sense of rhythm.

By the time we received the Archangel, our heads were already spinning rather, for this year's programme has received more media and public acclaim than any of our previous bills. By fortunate coincidence, our Fringe venues have really taken off in the same year that Aurora Nova stopped operating. There's no direct link between the two: we were already fully-programmed when Aurora Nova pulled out of the 2008 Fringe. But its absence has caused some major media players to look a little further afield - and to suggest Zoo Southside as Aurora Nova's successor. Writers in The Guardian, The Scotsman, British Theatre Guide, The Herald, and The Financial Times all intimated that those disappointed by the loss of Aurora Nova ought to wander in our direction, and with our audiences up over 50% across the month, clearly many people took notice.

We never set out to replace Aurora Nova - apart from anything else we've got a very different ethos, for while international dance and physical theatre is an integral part of our programme and the element that gets the most media attention, we've got no intention of focusing exclusively on it, and want to keep generating crossover audiences and showcasing every possible Fringe genre. For the same reason, we also want to continue booking youth dance companies and emerging talent alongside the well-established international companies. But if while doing that, we also feature plenty of the kind of work that earned Aurora Nova such a dedicated following, and provide those disappointed by its absence with an alternative Fringe home, then that's ideal, and the comparisons drawn this year have been extremely flattering.

Naturally, this summer hasn't been all about awards and critical praise. It's impossible to have a flawless Fringe, and there are countless things we want to address ready for next year. But there's been nothing anywhere near the magnitude of past dramas. We've had the odd issue with office organisation, over-running shows, communication with non-English speaking companies, and noise transfer between certain spaces, but overall we've been busy, our companies are happy, and we're financially healthy (by our modest standards anyway). It's been a serene and superb month.

Despite the incessant rain, the lack of public confidence in the Fringe Box Office system, the stream of negative headlines that situation generated, and general uneasiness about how much free cash the UK had to spend on fripperies like theatre attendance amid general financial gloom, our venues have been busier than ever, with new personal records set virtually every day in the second half of the month.

The fact that things have been great, but could have been even better, is very reassuring. The Fringe never stops, and had we enjoyed an utterly perfect year, we would have currently been nervous about how hard it would be to do better still in 2009. Thankfully there is still room for improvement - even on our busiest days ever there were still shows that didn't get the audience we felt they deserved, and still aspects of our organisation that could have been tighter, plus other useful services that we could be offering for companies and audiences. Right now, we're delighted, we're exhausted, but we've got no intention of relaxing yet. Zoo Venues' 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe has already begun.

END

(c) Matt Beer 28 August 08

Matt's next article in this series appears later in September 08

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com