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FREE FOR ALL

From PBH to the Laughing Horse Free Festival, The List’s Rebecca Monks explores everything you need to know about free shows at the Fringe

I f you’re based in Edinburgh during August, you’ll know that it’s basically impossible to avoid using the F Word. It is prompted by pushy l yerers, passing tourists and is muttered late at night in beer gardens all over the city: yes, ‘Fringe’ truly is the word on everybody’s lips. But, as I found out when attempting to include my own show in this year’s programme, there’s another loaded F Bomb that crops up when talking about the festival: ‘Free’ (plus a third I dare not mention).

Back in January, I set about researching the free festival, only to i nd that it wasn’t a single festival strand at all. In fact, there are two prominent organisations working within the non-pay-to-play model: the PBH Free Fringe and the Laughing Horse Free Festival, which have different policies, work with different venues and are run in different ways. After some research, I i lled in the application form for the latter, and the rest was history.

Except it wasn’t. I waited every day for news on my show, be it a coni rmation or a rejection. For three months I emailed, called and tweeted, but, as they say, a watched inbox never boils over with provisional show offers. Months passed, and by the time April rolled around, bringing with it the deadline to register for the Fringe programme, I had received a handful of group emails about applying for alternative venues, while my outbox contained a lot of unanswered requests.

Just when I had given up hope, that same afternoon something exciting happened: I got an email offering me a slot at a newly available venue. The problem was, by agreeing to perform, I would also be agreeing to pay the £393.60 fee to appear in the Fringe programme, and with the 5pm same-day deadline looming, I was left with approximately three hours and 23 minutes to i nd the money. Though we knew about the fee from the beginning, without a previous solid show offer, we had no funds and no time to raise them. Suddenly the Free Festival wasn’t feeling so free. I sent what was to be my i nal email on the matter: turning my dream slot down. In case you were wondering, that was when I used the third F Word. As it happens, my show (Scour, Clouds & Soil, until 29 Aug, 2.15pm, free, shameless self promotion) eventually found a happy home as part of the PBH Free Fringe, where Fringe Society programme entry is not compulsory. But this testing application process was a learning curve, and highlighted some interesting aspects of the free strands, both in terms of organisation and creative decision making.

If I was frustrated with the delay in hearing back, it is perhaps because the Free Fringe and the Free Festival are just as carefully curated as the rest of the Fringe, despite the popular myth that just about anybody can i ll a slot in the lineup. As you can imagine, careful programming takes time.

13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 23