Support for participants

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, encourage and inspire artists from all backgrounds to come to the Fringe.

Are you an artist looking to bring a show to the Fringe? Check out our guides and resources for artists at the Fringe:

We support participants at every stage of their journey, from taking their first steps, to providing advice and guidance during the festival itself at Fringe Central.

Our Artist Services team offers guidance and support around the practicalities of bringing a show to the Fringe, from finding a venue and booking accommodation to immigration guidance, music licensing and much more.
Our Artist Development team offers one-to-one support for artists to create career goals and navigate the opportunities available for professional development at the Fringe, as well as hosting networking and skill building events for artists.
Our Arts Industry Office exists year-round to provide services to arts industry professionals from all over the world, maintaining the Fringe's reputation as the world's most significant arts marketplace where Fringe artists can further their careers and achieve success after the festival.
Our Communications and Marketing team promote the festival as a whole, generating increased attention and ticket sales. Media and marketing advice is also available to registered shows, including one-to-one meetings and feedback on press releases.
Our Community Engagement and Learning teams work to provide paid opportunities for Fringe artists to engage with community groups and schools in Edinburgh outside of Fringe time.

We provide services to support artists during August and throughout the year, and campaign and lobby vigorously on their behalf.

We offer:

professional development workshops, networking events and panel discussions about current affairs, led by worldwide industry leaders and always BSL interpreted.
marketing guidance to help artists home in on the goals of their marketing campaign.
media support, including press pitching advice and press release templates, as well as media ticketing services to help reviewers see their show. We also coordinate Meet the Media, our popular pitching event with Fringe media titles.
support around music licensing on the Fringe, including an anticipated bespoke and blanket arrangement negotiated for Fringe companies
opportunities to connect with arts industry professionals, including promoters, tour bookers and film / TV producers from all over the UK and overseas, to help artists with the next steps in their career.
one-to-one artist advice sessions to help artists navigate the opportunities for their show, identify their goals and how and who to contact to help them realise their ambitions.
professional, impartial support and advice for almost any issue which might arise, including mediation services with companies and venues.
ticketing services through the Fringe Box Office.
a show listing on edfringe.com (which had just over 3 million visitors in 2022), giving Fringe audiences a seamless journey from browsing shows to buying tickets.

We offer:

step-by-step guidance on how to bring a show to the Fringe, from advice on making shows more accessible or environmentally friendly, to assistance navigating music licensing and insurance, to information on post-Fringe touring.
year-round practical advice and support from the Artist Services team, including one-to-one sessions when needed.
marketing advice to help artists promote their Fringe show.

In fact, much of the above advice, guidance and services for artists are already freely available on this website – we work to keep them updated and useful for anyone who wants to come to the Fringe.

We use our influence and agency to lobby for support, investment and recognition of the performing arts, artists, freelancers, companies and venues.
We promote the value of participation in the Fringe all over the world, and lobby arts councils and funding agencies across the UK and internationally to support performing arts.
We continually innovate and pioneer advanced support services for curators, programmers and commissioners coming to the Fringe to discover new work and talent, the better to open up more career opportunities for Fringe artists.
We provide support for the world’s media to cover the Fringe, and for critics and arts journalists to see and review work, enhancing artists’ profiles.
We work with government to make the case for ease of movement for artists, including securing permit-free status for our festival so that artists needn’t require work visas to perform here.
While the Fringe Society has no role in curating the Fringe or in running venues, we do set guidance on best practise and standards for companies and venues, and use our influence to help make the Fringe the best experience for all who participate.
We regularly consult and form strategic partnerships with members of the artistic community (such as Something to Aim For and Somewhere at the Fringe) to ensure we’re addressing current concerns and offering the best support that we can.

We are working hard to make the festival more affordable for artists:

Show registration fees have been frozen for nearly two decades.
We are seeking to increase the availability of affordable accommodation options through partnerships with accommodation and transport providers, including Queen Margaret University, Lothian Buses and ScotRail. We're also continuing to lobby key decision-makers and policy-makers on behalf of artists.
We support artists to grow their audience and box office income while exploring affordable ticketing options to help audiences see as much work as possible, irrespective of their budget. We now rebate a percentage of booking fee income directly to venues and artists.

Spotlight Story

Ben Macpherson, Fringe artist

I’m a Nottingham-based writer and performer who’s worked across theatre, comedy and spoken word; my productions usually blend these together into very playful fusion shows.

I first heard about the Fringe as an aspiring comedy maker when I was 16 or 17. It was spoken of as an El Dorado for culture. The first Fringe I got to attend was 2012 through friends I’d made at university. It felt like I’d spent my life breathing with only one of my lungs and now I could fill them. I went right in as a flyerer for a friend’s show in exchange for cheaper rent. It took five years before I got to bring a show of my own to the Fringe: in 2017 I brought The Fall of Byron Montrose; Poet, Gentleman, Lover up with the support of PBH Free Fringe. The rest is history.

Through a mixture of hard work and good luck I have since transitioned to a full-time freelance artist. This puts a financial pressure on the decisions I make without the backup of the day job to rely on any longer. I received Keep it Fringe funding in 2023, which meant that I was able to release some of this pressure, particularly subsidising my accommodation and letting me invest more in promotion. I also used some of the funds to support my wellbeing at the Fringe, most prominently getting a month’s membership at a health club to let me keep up with my swimming – this really helped keep me grounded in the furore of the festival.

In 2023 I was up with a poetry show Serious Nonsense for Terribly Grown-Up People – it’s a performed version of my debut poetry collection with the same name. It was aimed at audiences aged 8+, which was a first for me as I’m usually focussed on comedy for an 18+ crowd – it gave me a really different view of the Fringe this time around. I was performing with the PBH Free Fringe again and as part of the deal, you do not charge ticket price but have a donation bucket at the end. Well this one family had come to see me four days in a row (it’s a very good show) and rather than donate cash on the last day, they brought me £10 worth of brie, from one of the poems in the show, appropriately titled 'Lovely Brie’. It meant I had very classy lunches the whole middle week of the Fringe.

The Fringe is a pulse for me, each year it arrives and fresh creative blood surges around my body. I mentioned earlier how my first visit felt like breathing again. I was able to tie this Fringe visit into my artistic development even more, thanks to Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice programme. I was looking at ways of tying together poetry and theatre for young people, so the chance to see spoken word shows and children’s shows let me think about how I’d combine the two. Having the opportunity to go and do a school visit during the last week of the Fringe and engage in outreach work meant a lot to me too, similar to the work I do with schools outside the summer holidays.

I also started performing cabaret sets, using some of my blue-er poetry (very much not for kids!) for late-night audiences that met with a huge response. I’m still working on some of the opportunities that opened from last August, although this sometimes feels like an uphill struggle as there’s an assumption that ‘free’ means poor quality, when actually the donation shows offer some of the richest and most exciting work in the whole programme.

Help the Fringe Society to support artists, assist audiences and make the Fringe more environmentally sustainable.

Together, we can give everyone a stage and anyone a seat.