"and receive little or no direct benefit from the official ticketed events,"

But, I suggest, they receive very significant indirect benefit. That's the reason why collecting for the Festival, and putting money in the collection, is a normal part of fringe events, and of those free events which aren't fringe, such as the processions. (What events fall into which category, fringe or free, is a moot point sometimes. In a sense "fringe" should just mean the events that aren't in the working programme, and there aren't that many of those)

I agree very much that it's a shame we have lost a number of venues in the centre - some of these have been because of town redevelopment (the Beach Store and the SWEB) or tightened safety rules (the Drill Hall), or increased costs of using them (Carinas and the Cinema). If there were a way to reverse this tendency, it'd be great. But there are still a fair number of official events happening down in the town centre.