Every August in Edinburgh The Free Fringe delivers 6,000 hours of quality comedy, theatre, cabaret, music, children’s, science, horror and spoken word for zero pounds.

At the Free Fringe the performer has paid nothing to us or the venue. There are no tickets, and the audience pays nothing either unless they want to donate at the end. Most do, some cannot afford to, and that’s all good.

The average ticket price at the Edinburgh Fringe is £12*. We have no audience figures but you can imagine how much we save those on low incomes. For the performer, the average venue hire at a very conservative estimate is £1000*. We have 500 shows this year saving them a potential total of £500,000. For comparison, the recent Keep It Fringe gave a total of £100,000 to a mere 180 shows.

So I appeal to anyone who loves the fringe and what it stands for, to those who may have already donated even, but hadn’t realised how much further that money could go to helping performers.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and within that the Free Fringe delivers 6,000 hours of quality comedy, theatre, cabaret, music, children’s, science, horror and spoken word for zero pounds. A whole fringe for free!

Let’s put that into context.

At the Free Fringe the performer has paid nothing to us or the venue. There are no tickets, and the audience pays nothing either unless they want to donate at the end. Most do, some cannot afford to, and that’s all good.

The average ticket price at the Edinburgh Fringe is £12*. We have no audience figures but you can imagine how much we save those on low incomes. For the performer, the average venue hire at a very conservative estimate is £1000*. We have 500 shows this year saving them a potential total of £500,000. For comparison, the recent Keep It Fringe gave a total of £100,000 to a mere 180 shows.

However we have no funding other than the generosity of the general public. All pre-Covid reserves in the bank have gone. The so-called Resilience Fund of 2022 gave us nothing, as it seemed to be aimed more at protecting those companies with large turnovers rather than the ones that helped those most in need.

Last year The Free Fringe Ltd became a non-profit charity and eventually we hope to see the result of some funding applications but we need more time.

So I appeal to anyone who loves the fringe and what it stands for, to those who may have already donated even, but hadn’t realised how much further that money could go to helping performers. Our running costs are £30,000 per year. Can you help ensure the survival of what the late great Sean Lock called “the true spirit of the fringe”?