Olympic effect bites into early attendances on the ‘Free Fringe’ circuit

THE founder of the “Free Fringe” has admitted to a disappointing drop in audiences this year - despite claims that free events have been sucking audiences away from ticketed venues.

Peter Buckley Hill, who launched the movement in 1996 with just a handful of venues, admitted six shows in his programme were cancelled due to poor audiences, and said the Olympics had badly affected audience numbers.

He also said the Fringe was still experiencing a divide with venues in the Old Town attracting “much better audiences” than those north of Princes Street.

The “Free Fringe” expanded from 326 shows last year to 387 this year, while the rival “Free Festival” programme, promoted by Laughing Horse, shrunk slightly from 340 to 325 shows. The remainder of the 814 free shows in the programme were largely made up of events at the BBC’s “pop-up” venue at Potterrow.

The Free Fringe and the Free Festival have also been hit by a backlash by some comedians and venue managers this year, amid concern that they are damaging lesser known acts in more established venues.

Mr Buckley Hill, who sits on the Fringe board, said: “We were definitely down across the board and I don’t believe anyone who says otherwise about this year’s Fringe.

“There was obviously an Olympic effect in the first week, when some shows had no audiences at all, and we had a few performers panicking and actually lost about half a dozen shows, which was obviously disappointed. We would never cancel a show ourselves.”

However Alex Petty, director of the Free Festival, insisted his audiences were “at least” as strong as in 2011.

“I think the difference for us is that all of our shows are actually in the Fringe programme and our venues are actually in the city centre. Both of those made a huge difference.”

Meanwhile Xavier Toby, an Australian comedian performing at C Venues, said: “The Fringe is broken. The Free Fringe arose out of necessity. Venues charging way too much drove people to come up with an alternative.

“I believe art should be committed to, and paid for prior to the performance. I think that my potential ticket sales have been decimated by the Free Fringe.

“I resorted to giving out free tickets to every show, just so there’s an audience. Unlike the free fringe, I don’t pass around a bucket, and I’ve got much higher venue and staffing costs.