Fringe Performers ALPHABET SOUP Stay in Nuclear Bunker to Combat Accommodation Costs

Comedy drag group Alphabet Soup have opted to stay in a nuclear bunker in Edinburgh, rather than pay eye-watering accomodation costs.

The group said they had chosen to set up camp at Barnton Bunker, after being quoted £35,000 on Airbnb for a month’s stay.

Speaking to The Times, the show’s producer, Seven Graham, said “Even if we sold every ticket we wouldn’t make that much money after our costs,”  

“I thought, ‘Oh my goodness I’m going to have to tell the comics we can’t go.’ I got really upset about it.”

“It’s not glamorous, we’re all sharing one Portakabin toilet and one shower, which is a bit of a logistical nightmare,” he said. “My bed is like a children’s bed, I’m half on it and half on my suitcase.”

However, he said it was worth it, as the group is paying around a sixth of what they would have spent on more traditional digs.

The bunker is situated off Queensferry Road, behind Edinburgh Zoo and was built in 1944. In 1951, was commissioned as a Cold War shelter for the UK government and the Queen in the event of a nuclear attack. It was decomissioned in 1955.

Costs for accomodation during the festival have always risen sharply. Soaring rents come amid warnings that the city’s available temporary accommodation has been slashed, due to strict new rules being imposed over short-term lets, even if it’s only for a few weeks. 

Edinburgh council became the first Short-term Let Control Area in Scotland last September amid a decline in readily available long-term housing. Homeowners must now apply for permission to let out a spare room or their entire home, although the council has said ‘exemptions’ would be made for up to six weeks during peak periods of demand.