[1] In 2020 and 2021, due to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the creative industries, the festival went online with Fringe of Colour Films.
Fringe of Colour was founded by Jess Brough in 2018 as a way to combat what they termed the "overwhelming whiteness" of the Edinburgh Festivals.
[2] When Brough first attended the festivals they noted that “I was looking for work by black performers and finding it really difficult.”[1] Fringe of Colour began as a publicly accessible database of Edinburgh festival shows by "Black and Brown Artists/Artists of Colour" (as Brough termed it), alongside a free ticket scheme aiming to make these shows accessible to young people of colour.
[3][4] This scheme has been compared to Tobi Kyeremateng’s Black Ticket Project, based in London.
[8] In 2020, the film programme included, among others, Athena Kugblenu, Mandla Rae, Selina Thompson and Hannah Lavery.