Free Fringe

So I had enough to do, so I was letting people in free.

But afterwards when y- and especially the Free Fringe, what you do is you do a bucket speech afterwards just so that someone can chuck a couple of quid in so that you can buy a Tesco's meal deal or whatever.

Yeah.

Um, so I thought, "Okay, but the thing is, people haven't got cash nowadays."

Maybe I heard it, but I cannae think.

She did that show at the Fringe, the Free Fringe, and it was, like, one of the most popular shows that came out at the Fringe.

But she never got, like, nominated or anything like that.

But she got, like, quite a big following and stuff, and she did it at the Free Fringe.

She didn't have PR and all that stuff.

And, like, there was a certain snooty-ness about, like, the show because it was, like, a show for lasses.

But I think...

the the i always used to tell when so i'm sure we'll talk about the edinburgh festival and stand up and what have you but there's a thing that's probably been going maybe 15 years now called the free fringe because the edinburgh festival's ruinous for stand-up comedians you regularly when i started it was just accepted you had to lose seven grand you just you sell out your show every day and you come down you look at the settlement and you lost seven grand because all of the accommodation and the cost and the promo the pr everything else So as a rebellion against that, they established, some people established a fringe called the Free Fringe, where you go and do effectively indoor busking shows in venues.

So in pubs, rather.

So the upstairs room of a pub, they're pleased because they've got footfall all day because of the thing.

So how it works is there are a bunch of venues up there.

There are sort of loosely, there's called the big four, the Pleasants, the Underbelly, the Assembly and the Gilded Balloon.

They've sort of got a bit of a headlock on it, but then the Free Fringe has slightly upset the apple cart on that one.

And there's other smaller organisations.

Whereas, you know, what people... often overlook as the sort of more dependable method, I think, is that you come up, you do your debut.

You do the free fringe or you do just the tonic or whatever is reasonable and it's fine.

Maybe you get one good

review.

When you're ready, you're starting to get enough reviews that people come and see you regularly.

You're building your audience.

I was sitting with Mark Simmons and Danny Ward, and we were talking about the Free Fringe, because they've been doing the Free Fringe for over a decade.

I think this is Mark's 19th Fringe.

But I guess there's no free element.

I love the free fringe element.

I think it's so awesome.

Yeah.

It stands as a shining modern monument to what the fringe makes possible, a single performer on a simple chair, armed with exceptional writing, transforming the landscape of global popular culture.

As venue production costs rose over the years, a brilliant counter movement emerged to protect the festival's grassroots ethos, the Free Fringe Revolution.

Founded in 1996 by performer Peter Buckley Hill, the concept was beautifully simple.

Picture a warm, welcoming pub backroom with exposed wood where audiences watch a show for free.

At the end, a bucket is passed around for voluntary cash donations.

Performers get venue space without paying astronomical rental fees, and the audience can take their wild chances on unknown shows without financial risk.

The free fringe grew exponentially, proving that great art doesn't require expensive ticket paywalls.

Today, hundreds of shows operate under this

Like, with so many shows happening, like, that's... an absurd amount of shows like are there enough people to fill the seats in those shows or is it a case of like you know the top 10% are selling 90% of the tickets like what's that like

Well, there's a whole portion of the fringe that's called the free fringe.

And this is when people can come in and just do their own show with no massive budget.

They can just don't charge a ticket price.

And at the end of the show, people pay money.

If they like the show, they can kind of give a donation.

It's called the Free Fringe.

It's kind of an offshoot of busking at the Fringe.

Um, incidentally for those who don't know, you referenced PBH.

Uh, uh, I think Free Fringe is predominantly, if it's fair to say still, made up of two companies that you can register a Free Fringe with.

It's either PBH or Laughing Horse.

Yes.

Pro comic, very funny, um, very talented musically.

He's done this show second year running about a story of Jez Bark, and he's, uh, selling out massive rooms on that.

But he also has a free Fringe show, which is every night, uh, on a different theme.

And he, like many I know, will run a free Fringe show simply 'cause that actually pays the bills.