industry arts founded 2001 headquarters london england products theatre and comedy promotion productions and venues subsidiaries underbelly promotions limited website http www.underbelly.co.uk uddberbelly festival in hong kong during december 2015 underbelly is a live events producer and venue operator known as one of the big four venue operators at the edinburgh festival fringe . from its roots as a fringe venue the company has expanded to include a festival on london s south bank and seasonal events in edinburgh and elsewhere . contents 1 history 1.1 edinburgh 1.2 other locations 2 performers 2.1 comedians 2.2 musicians 3 external links history edit edinburgh edit underbelly was founded in 2000 by directors ed bartlam and charlie wood to operate one venue at the edinburgh festival fringe . in 2001 underbelly limited was formed to turn the underbelly venue into a professional operation . the original venue on edinburgh s cowgate now includes a number of different performance spaces with themed names such as iron belly white belly and big belly . over the years underbelly s operations have expanded beyond the cowgate to include a hub space known as the udderbelly pasture in george square and a circus hub on the meadows . for several years underbelly operated a hub in bristo square but recent redevelopment works at the nearby mcewan hall mean the site is currently unavailable . each underbelly venue is recognisable by its purple cow themed branding most notably a large upside down inflatable purple cow which serves as one of the venues . in 2015 underbelly hosted over 130 shows at the fringe . besides its fringe operations underbelly also co ordinates edinburgh s christmas a funfair market and events programme in princes street gardens . in 2014 3.6 million visitors were recorded . citation needed other locations edit in 2009 in collaboration with the southbank centre in london the company launched udderbelly festival an eight week programme of comedy circus and family entertainment inside the upside down purple cow venue . by 2015 the festival had extended to fifteen weeks . the festival won best festival at the london lifestyle awards in 2012 . citation needed in 2012 underbelly also launched london wonderground a programme of circus cabaret and family entertainment based in a 1920s paradiso spiegeltent . the wonderground also presents oddities curiosities and eccentricities such as the 60 metre high star flyer which gives views over london s rooftops . other london events which underbelly produces include west end live in trafalgar square pride in london and the rekorderlig cider lodge at southbank centre s winter festival . in 2015 underbelly produced the official fanzone at the rugby union world cup in richmond . elsewhere the company produced the comedy hullabaloo in stratford upon avon and the udderbelly festival in hong kong . performers edit performers who have appeared at underbelly venues since 2000 include comedians edit stewart lee co writer director of jerry springer the opera waen shepherd will adamsdale aka chris john jackson in jackson s way rob deering lucy porter janey godley rain pryor robin ince russell howard howard read paul provenza ricky tomlinson topping & butch richard herring simon bird reginald d hunter phil nicol joan rivers frisky and mannish musicians edit keane the thrills athlete nizlopi oasis ocean colour scene tom jones mark owen of take that tina dico formerly of zero 7 gwyneth herbert external links edit underbelly s website underbelly s smirnoff underbelly website at the wayback machine archived 23 july 2007 the guardian article on underbelly the scotsman article on underbelly edinburgh evening news article on underbelly official edinburgh fringe website edinburgh guide news and reviews . scotsman evening news reviews threeweeks comprehensive coverage of the edinburgh fringe and other festivals official edinburgh comedy festival website v t e edinburgh festival fringe key articles edinburgh festival fringe edinburgh festival fringe society edinburgh promoters big four assembly gilded balloon pleasance underbelly other paid c venues greenside venues just the tonic thespace sweet venues zoo venues free free fringe laughing horse venues current fringe shop fringe central st columba s by the castle the stand comedy club new town theatre george square theatre mayfield salisbury church teviot sweet grassmarket royal over seas league assembly rooms dance base summerhall john hope gateway john knox house scottish storytelling centre st cecilia s hall cowgatehead the pleasance adam house assembly hall bruntsfield church quaker meeting house hill street theatre symposium hall bedlam theatre surgeons hall canongate kirk cafe camino voodoo rooms zoo southside the famous spiegeltent the caves wee red bar st bride s centre assembly roxy previous dunfermline abbey gateway theatre meadowbank stadium performers theatre companies glasgow unity theatre shows black watch jerry springer the opera stomp awards edinburgh comedy awards publications the british theatre guide broadway baby chortle fest fringe review the guardian the herald the list the scotsman the stage threeweeks prominent figures anthony alderson ed bartlam william burdett coutts robert kemp karen koren christopher richardson tommy sheppard charlie wood locations george square new town old town royal mile fringe by year 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title underbelly events promoter & oldid 720336899 categories edinburgh festival fringetheatres in edinburghedinburgh comedy festivalcompanies based in londonhidden categories use dmy dates from july 2015use british english from july 2015all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2016articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 may 2016 at 06 51 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia 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