The Fringe is all about chaos: beautiful, loud, colourful chaos. But this summer has just been a little bit too chaotic. No tickets and, for weeks, no money coming in for all manner of companies and performers; raised voices and angry meetings. Something had to give - and it did yesterday when the director of the Fringe resigned.

There was widespread sympathy for Jon Morgan, who many feel is a scapegoat for a series of organisational failures. Already there have been calls for more widespread resignations and even for the heads of the entire 14-strong Fringe Society board. And there have been dire warnings, reported in this newspaper, that the Fringe itself could be bankrupted. Throughout this Fringe you could find angry promoters fulminating: “Their only job is to sell tickets and they can't even do that.” But it's never been as simple as that. Sure, the Fringe sells tickets, but it also supplies endless support and advice, expertise in everything from hiring a venue to immigration regulations and sponsorship. It has just 13 permanent staff who pull off a minor miracle each year.

Many of the nameless bellyachers, often quoted as “Fringe insiders”, will be back next year, hoping to mop up a profit and find a new act which will make them rich. And the festival they will descend on will still be here, as chaotic as ever.

Before then, the Fringe Society must act swiftly. There should be no more resignations - this a voluntary arts body, not Heathrow's Terminal 5 - and it has suffered enough this summer. But the organisation must be stabilised by the swift appointment of a new director, two reports into the performance and future of the Fringe must be assimilated and acted upon quickly, and, for performers, there must be peace of mind that the box office system will be sorted out.

Beyond that, it might be worth remembering Lynn Ruth Miller, who had never performed on stage before she was 70, but this year, at 75, brought a burlesque show complete with striptease routine from San Francisco to the basement bar of an Edinburgh boozer. That's the elusive “spirit of the Fringe” , which will sustain the festival long after the ticketing fiasco is forgotten.

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