Proper update coming on the proper free fringe website shortly, but on (soft) deadline day for applications for Durham Free Fringe, I can report that in the last few weeks it's gone nuts. One month ago, interest was only trickling in, and I was stressing over whether we'd be able to put on an event any bigger than the pilot festival last year. Now it's a new challenge: with more entries than we were expecting, a new task to find venues to put everyone.

Our aim is unchanged: we want a stage for everyone, and I'm still hopeful we can accommodate everyone who applied. We are in discussions with several venues to increase our capacity, and hope to be able to share news soon for who's on board. After than we can embark on scheduling and offers.

In the mix of this, we have Durham Fringe applicants to consider. A handful of Free Fringe applicants also applied to Durham Fringe - if that's you, don't worry, we can include you. We have deliberately planned the programming process so that unsuccessful Durham Fringe applicants can consider us an alternative - that's the reason why the 31st March is a "soft" deadline. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll appreciate that we don't have the resources to find a home for all 100+ applicants without a Durham Fringe venue. Our current plan is to programme for the acts we already have first. After that, we should have a better idea if we have gaps in the programme we can fill.

All getting exciting/stressful now. All that remains is to thank everyone who put their trust in us for fringe week - we want to make sure our trust is earned.