Durham Free Fringe is excited to announce that programming has begun for our first year. And we want to hear from you. Here's how it's going to work:

What the Free Fringe is

The "Free Fringe" concept originated in Edinburgh. Most venues at the Edinburgh Fringe were pop-up theatre spaces, fully equipped with stages, sound and lighting, and whilst great things could be achieved on these small stages, demand was at a premium, and many artists struggled to find a venue, or afford a venue, or both. Then companies like PBH and Laughing Horse recognised that, for many performers, these bells and whistles weren't actually required, just as long as you had a room and an audience. With far lower budget overheads, the events could be both free to take part in and free to watch, with audience invited to donate to the performer after the act if they enjoyed it.

The Free Fringe was originally aimed at aspiring stand-up comedians, but the scope has since grown wider. Some comedians who rose through the free fringe have stayed with the free fringe venues. There have been some excellent theatre productions in free fringe spaces that use the setup to their advantage. And the Free Fringe has also been popular with established acts trying out new material as work in progress. This what we want to bring to Durham.

What we can offer

We are running on the 23rd - 27th July parallel to Durham Fringe, and we are hosting events in three spaces over two venues. At The Holy Grale in Crossgate, we can run events in the main bar upstairs, or a smaller cellar downstairs. At The Station House underneath the viaduct, we can run events in the upstairs bar area. However, in our first year we expect to only be running one venue at a time. As a result, capacity will be limited. So the more flexible you are with dates, we more likely it is we can programme you.

As we have technical backgrounds, we may be able to go over and above what a free fringe can normally offer. For stand-up comedy, we hope to provide a microphone and a stage. For theatre, we should be in a position be able to help with sound operation and possibly sound design. However, all of this is provisional, and you are strongly advised to have a plan in place should no tech support be available.

There is no charge for taking part in Durham Free Fringe, and, for the time being, no deposit required for a slot. Unlike most Edinburgh Free Fringe venues, we currently don't ask performers to man the doors of other acts - we will be taking care of that, you just need to turn up for your own event. However, you are encouraged to turn up and support other acts, and we will encourage other acts to come to yours.

You keep all of the donations - we can do this by keeping operating costs to a minimum. However, like Durham Fringe, and every other Fringe and Free Fringe, we cannot guarantee you an audience. We will be doing some collective publicity of the whole event, and will publicise individual acts on our social media channels as and when we can, but it's your choice if you want to publicise your act further. We are happy to advise you if you want to do your own posters or flyering.

What we are looking for

In short: anything! As long as you can make it work within the spaces we have available, we want to hear from you. But if you want something more specific:

Theatre: The free fringe works under "shared light" conditions, meaning there is little separation between performers and audience. As a result, the theatre best suited to free fringe conditions is theatre that is heavily interactive with the audience. Solo plays and storytelling are particularly suited, but larger cast plays are fine as long as you're aware of the limited space you have for a stage. Plays that can make the surrounding space and furniture part of the performance work particularly well - plays that consider this an obstacle, less so.

Comedy: We have secured some lighting for the comedy slots at the venues, but it will be shy of a professional spot. The venues will be arranged so that the seating will be in traditional rows providing separation between acts and audience. 

Everything else: We'll play it by ear. Let us know what you have in mind and we'll get back to you.

We are provisionally scheduling the free fringe on the assumption of 60 minute time slots, but depending on the submissions this can be extended to 75min+ overall per slot. This can include 'tight 5s' or 10s, up to a run-through of a full show, though we would like to showcase more acts so there will be a limit of full hour submissions accepted. Please feel free to submit parts of your show that you would like to perform here in Durham with the Free Fringe. We currently don't have plans for multimedia this year, to keep costs as low as possible, so any projection/slides or other A/V would have to be accommodated and setup by the performers.

In all cases, we need to be satisfied what you want to do is practical. Bringing in large complex sets is definitely out, as is anything that would entail complex health and safety risk assessment. There is nowhere to store set and nowhere to change, so you are probably need to turn up in costume carrying everything you need. Owing to the limited capacity of our schedule, we will probably be programming no more than 1-2 performances of a show. The more flexible you can be on where and when you perform, the more likely we'll be able to help you.

How to apply

If you have already got in touch since our launch (either by email or in person), thank you. We'll get back to you shortly and see if you're still interested. Everyone else: drop us a line at hello@durhamfreefringe.org.uk, and tell us who you are, and what you want to perform. We will get back to you too. We don't want to vet or censor by any particular artistic strand, and any questions we have are likely to be around practicalities and availability.

We are not operating to a fixed deadline, nor are we operating on a strict "first come first served" basis, but the sooner you reach out, the more likely we'll be able to help you.

That's it. Look forward to hearing from you.

What the Free Fringe is not

Finally, a few words to manage expectations. Durham Free Fringe does not want to be a competitor to Durham Fringe, nor is it really an alternative. Our observation is that the most successful free fringe acts are the ones who planned to work in the free fringe from the outset. If you apply to a free fringe looking forward to making the most of just you, a room, and an audience, you have a good chance of making a success out of it. If you see the free fringe as a second-rate substitute for a "proper" fringe stage, you will probably be disappointed.

In short: if you wanted a fully-equipped fringe stage - but see the free fringe as the best you can get - Durham Free Fringe is not the right festival for you. A lot can be achieved on a free fringe stage with a tiny budget, but it's not the same as a conventional stage. Whether you can achieve what you want is really your call. Just be aware that the free fringe is not better or worse that the standard fringe - only different.

Questions and answers:

I have an act which is neither theatre nor comedy - can I apply? Yes! The only reason we're focusing on theatre and comedy is because this is where our backgrounds are. But anything that works in a free fringe space is welcome. Poetry, music, talks, anything else you think of, if you have an idea for the spaces we have, we want to hear it.

Can I take a work in progress to Durham Free Fringe? Yes! This is one of the things Free Fringe does best. Some of the most successful Fringe shows out there developed on the Free Fringe. Let us know if your show is work in progress - if you're still at the stage of performing script in hand, it's only fair to publicise it as work in progress. But most fringe shows are work in progress to some extent, and the low overheads of a Free Fringe make this an ideal place to try out new things.

I applied to Durham Fringe but didn't get a place - can I apply to you instead? Yes, you are welcome to, but as we said, the Free Fringe is different. Think carefully about whether the thing you wanted at Durham Fringe would work in a free fringe setup, with less tech support and a less distant audience. But if you know what you're doing, we'll gladly have you.

We are aware that it can sometimes take a long time to know whether or not you've got a place at Durham Fringe. If you are unsure, let us know your situation, and we'll work out a way forwards.

I have a show at Durham Fringe - can I bring something different to the Free Fringe? Maybe, but our priority is to give as many people as possible a chance to perform in Durham. We're more likely to offer a slot to someone who otherwise would not be able to perform at all. But ask us anyway - there's a chance you'll have something we're looking for.

Can we bring our own tech to a Free Fringe venue? We have no objection ourselves to bringing along your own equipment provided you can set it up and strike it in time. However, we would also need permission of the relevant venue, which we can't guarantee. Best strategy is to tell us what you want to do, try to keep it as simple as possible, and have a tech-free backup plan if we have to say no.

I don't have a show but I'd still like to get involved. Can I volunteer? At the moment, we are encouraging people who want to volunteer for something to apply for Durham Fringe rather than us. Durham Fringe is a big operation that relies on a big pool of volunteers, but at the moment we'd rather not manage a big team ourselves.

However, if you are performing and want to help out with running the festival, we will gladly take up any offers. (No pressure here - if you just want to turn up and do your thing, that's also fine.) And if, for any reason, you specifically want to volunteer for us, let us know, and we'll take it from there.

I have a different question! Please ask. We're not giving a running commentary of every discussion we've had and every decision we've made, but we're quite open about what we're doing and we're quite happy to answer any questions of what we're doing and why.

And that's it. Look forward to hearing from you.

Postscript: Apologies that Durham Free Fringe information is currently being posted on my personal web page. We do actually have a web domain set up for this, but we haven't got round to setting up a website yet. But I promise we will - Chris