AFTER what has been a devastating year for the creative industries, the Southside Fringe is generating hope with its new online festival.

One of Glasgow's most loved community events, the Fringe was cancelled last year as the pandemic hit - taking work from more than 200 creatives.

This year festival bosses are looking for new ways to bring music, theatre and art to audiences.

And they're kicking off with virtual event Plugged In & Wired, which launches on Friday, March 26 with more than 50 acts streaming online.

Managing Director of Southside Fringe, Corinna Currie, said bringing the festival back this year has been an emotional experience.

She said: "To be able to forge on and still have a presence and be able to do this virtual festival, I can't describe the emotion.

"It's just been such an amazing process.

"Because we had a limited budget we couldn't accept everybody so we had to go through a voting process.

"We let all the successful acts know on New Year's Eve and so I spent the first part of this year crying.

"It was just so heartwarming. It was giving people hope, the fact we were able to give people paid slots, it was the first paid work they had had for a year."

Southside Fringe Festival was set up in 2013 and each year sees venues across Glasgow's South Side taken over with around 150 events.

Last year's cancellation, as Covid-19 spread, took work from more than 200 people and around 40 venues - but left Corinna determined to do what she could to support her colleagues in the arts.

She persuaded Glasgow City Council to allow her to repurpose money that would have been used for last year's festival launch event to go towards supporting an advice platform for creatives.

Corinna said: "Our sector has been the hardest hit, it has been the hardest to find financial security in any way.

"I spent the first six months of lockdown without any income.

"And I'm not alone in that situation by any means.

Plugged In & Wired SSFF 1

Plugged In & Wired SSFF 1

"It was difficult for managing directors of small companies who don't draw down much money from their companies to get furloughed, to get the self-employed grants, so it's been such an insecure year and you're looking at massive financial losses as well."

The emotional and mental health impact of not working has taken a toll on people in the industry too.

And Corinna said filming for Plugged In & Wired, which is being funded with money from the council's Local Area Partnerships, was overwhelming for everyone involved as they realised what they had been missing over the past 12 months.

Corinna said: "At one point, it was really strange, we all looked at each other and said, 'We haven't done this in a year'.

"Everyone, even big roadie types, all of us had a misty-eyed experience. It was palpable, you could feel the serotonin in the room.

"We knew what a special thing that was that we were involved in because nobody has been able to access live arts in a year.

"When you've been away from it for a year it's visceral, it's palpable - the beauty of somebody creating something in front of you."

The virtual event will be streamed via Southside Fringe’s Youtube channel and will be free to watch from March 26 onwards.

It will feature a variety of performances from comedy, music, spoken word, cabaret, literature, food and drink and more.

Southside Fringe also has exciting plans for May, when it's hoped Covid-19 restrictions will be eased.

Instead of the usual launch event, Corinna is helping create plans for a walking tour of window performances around the South Side.

For more updates and info visit www.southsidefringe.org.uk or Southside Fringe’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.