Edinburgh Fringe director leaves

Gudgin has seen ticket sales surpass one million

The director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Paul Gudgin, is stepping down after eight years.

He leaves after the Fringe's most successful year ever, with 1.5 million tickets sold for more than 1,800 shows.

"It's been a great privilege to run the world's largest arts festival for the past eight years," said Gudgin, "but it's time for me to move on".

He intends to produce a variety of festival and event-related projects both in the UK and internationally.

Last year, as the Fringe celebrated its 60th anniversary, Gudgin called for more support for the Edinburgh festival - which is the world's largest such event.

"This is the sixth year of consecutive growth," he said, "it is now time for Edinburgh and Scotland to acknowledge the value of the festivals and act to safeguard their future."

He added that there was a "climate of growing competition from other UK and international festivals" such as Liverpool, Manchester and Barcelona.

Gudgin will remain in his post until the launch of the 2007 programme in June.