It's Monday 28th July. It's one day after Durham Free Fringe finished. And it's actually worked. We put on show. And we got an audience. And a respectable audience size.

Honestly, you have no idea how much of a relief it is to have pulled this off. I have been stressing over this for pretty much the last eight months. The difference between this and my Durham Fringe work is that, this time round, the buck really did stop with me. There really was nobody to come to my rescue. It really was a case of guesswork over which of our plans were going to work - and I won't tell a lie, there were a lot of things that didn't work the way we wanted. There were long period of time in the run-up when I was convinced this was going to be a damp squib. We did manage to get venues on board and put together a programme and get publicity out, but with all events being free and unticketed, we had no idea what audiences we would get. It really was a case of turn up and hope other people do.

But, my God, it worked. Varied from show to show, but for the 7.30 comedy shows some turnouts beyond my wildest dreams. So thank you so much to everybody who made this work. Thanks to Adil my co-organiser, our visiting artists Kathrine, Caitriona, Ben, Dan, Raymond and Jennifer, and everybody in the audience who gave our crazy gamble a chance.

The cat's already out of the bag: we intend to do this again next year. We do have lessons to learn from this one, and any feedback you have will be welcome, be it what we could do better or what direction you want us to go in. But right now, I need to sleep for a month.

We now have an actual website, so you can follow that for updates instead of reading call-outs on this is. In the meantime, here's a picture of the first It's Not Cluedo to take place in Durham.

Excuse the lack of updates, but with Buxton Fringe performances and Durham Free Fringe preparations going on, I haven't had much time for updates. If you've been following Instagram or Bluesky you should have a better idea of what's going on.

But we're actually doing it. It starts tomorrow, with ten performances of six acts over five days in two venues. Gotta rush, so here's a reprint of the press release.

Would love to see you this week. And we now have an actual website.

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Durham Free Fringe brings a stage for everyone

A new festival comes to Durham this July to build on the success of Durham Fringe. Modelled on Edinburgh Free Fringe, an intiative that made performing at Edinburgh more accessible to artists, Durham Free Fringe will run alongside Durham Fringe on the 23^rd - 27^th July.

There are no fees to take part, and all performances are free to watch, with audiences invited to make donations to the performers after each show. The reason this is possible is that the Free Fringe recognises that many acts do not need pop-up theatre spaces with full sound and lighting equipment; for performances such as stand-up comedy, stoytelling and poetry, only a room in a pub is needed. Without such labour-intensive overheads, it is possible to open up performance opportunities to many more acts.

In its first year, Durham Free Fringe will be kept small and manageable. Run by Aadil Kurji leading on comedy and Chris Neville-Smith leading on theatre, Durham Free Fringe will by primarily based at The Holy GrAle, with The Station House running as a secondary venue on Saturday 26^th. The programme for the first year includes:

• Philosophy Storytime: Erotic Tales of and for Lovers of Wisdom. Previously debuted at Dundee Fringe, a one-person performance from Kathrine Cuccuru that combines storytelling and philosophical discussion. Showing on Wednesday 23^rd and Thursday 24^th July at the Holy GrAle at 6.00 p.m.
• It’s Not Cluedo! Chris Neville-Smith’s comedy game show developed with the Rotunda at Brighton Fringe finally comes home to Durham. Choose your own setting, you own murder victim, and your own list of six suspects, six weapons and nine locations. Showing on Wednesday 23^rd at the Holy GrAle at 7.30 p.m.
• (Just off the) Bailey Banter: Aadil Kurji’s mixed bill stand-up comedy sets. All welcome, from new comedians trying out new sets to established comedians with samples from larger shows. Showing on Thursday 24^th July and Friday 25^th July at the Holy GrAle at 7.30 p.m.
• The Durham Improv Jam: Your chance to come and play some improv games, or watch other performers take to the stage, in a relaxed and unscripted interactive show. Join us for an hour jam-packed full of laughs! Friday 25^th July at 4.30 p.m.
• Caitriona Dowden: Dance Like Everyone's Dancing: Following her double award-nominated debut, she returns with a feel-good show about apocalyptic dread (and the 1518 dancing plague). Showing on Friday 25^th July at the Holy GrAle at 6.00 p.m, then Saturday 26^th at the Station House at 2.00 p.m.
• Doctor Coppelius: Chris Neville-Smith’s storytelling play about the tragic villain from the ballet Coppelia. We see Doctor Coppelius’s journey from an idyllic youthful love story to the sinister puppet-master he became. Showing on Saturday 26^th at the Station House at 3.00 p.m, then Sunday 27^th May at 4.00 p.m. at the Holy Grale.

Entry to all shows are free and unticketed.

Been a slow news month for theatre projects but still plenty to keep me busy, most notably Brighton Fringe, which has gone really well. I've had some great showings of It's Not Cluedo, thanks in a large part to some incredible guests I had of these shows. I also saw some great photos taken from the audience, which I can't post here because I didn't hear back about permission, but you can enjoy it in this on instagram with this photo and this video.* This is the first time that ticket revenue has gone into four figures - and, okay, comedy is easy to sell than theatre, but it makes a refreshing change from fringe theatre performances where I've fretted over getting any kind of audience at all.

*: Insta links aren't being reliable. It's the sixth and ninth item in the set of pictures if it doesn't take you to the correct pic.

Huge thanks to all my guests - honestly, the show is only what it is because of you. Special thanks in particular to the random audience member who joined us in the last game when we were short of guests. You were fab. But I've already forgotten your name. Please identify yourself and I will make sure you are credited.

I'm not quite done with It's Not Cluedo. Currently got confirmed dates at Scarborough and Buxton Fringe here. Just a heads-up: I have already sold 15% of tickets for Scarborough It's Not Cluedo. I am considering my options for what to do if it sells out, but Scarborians: if you want to be certain, early booking advised. Also got my Doctor Coppelius run, details here. Hope to add some more dates soon - check those two links to stay up to date.

Other than that, it might look calm, but think of it as a duck: all calm and peaceful up top, but under the water where you can't see it's all very busy. Should have some news for you soon. Until then, that's all folks.

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

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. You have no idea the pain and stress I've been through over this. There used to be a time when I contacted a fringe venue, they booked you in - or at the very worst, you waited a set time for a yes or no decision. No finger-pointing here, just glad I've got this sorted. Finally.

So ... here is the full line-up.

Firstly, just announced, I am doing a preview at The Hop Knocker in Durham, or more specifically, Gilesgate, just round the corner from where I live. This will be the most informal event and will be my first tryout of the new automated system I've been working on. Wednesday 30th April at 6.00 p.m. Free entry, but please buy yourself some drinks from there, because Ben is a top bloke.

Then it's Brighton Fringe at the Rotunda who are my co-producers - without which none of this would have happened. I've already announced this, but as a recap, it's Saturday 3rd May at 5.00 p.m, Sunday 4th May at 12.30 p.m., and Saturday 17th May at 5.00 p.m. One experimental thing we're going to be doing is that the 4th May show will be a more family-friendly one. The shows are generally family-friendly anyway, but this one may have more goofing, more guests from child-friendly shows and - I hope - less swearing from my pottymouth. The call for guests went out this week, and I think we're going to have some good ones. Tickets here. (You can also get them through Brighton Fringe - but the booking fee is higher, and we get less money.)

Next, Scarborough Fringe. The good news is that YMCA Theatre snapped me up and I'll be performing in their theatre bar again. However, due to everybody who understood Eventotron being unexpectedly away for one reason or another, I couldn't get this confirmed until after the deadline. Fortunately, the Scarborough Fringe people were accommodating, and it's now all sorted. See you there on Thursday 19th June at 7.30 p.m. This one nearly sold out last time, so you might want to book early for this. (I have considered what to do if there's a sell-out, but there's no easy way up capacity, so if you're determined to see this, best to be on the safe side. Tickets not on sale yet.) Whilst I'm in Scarborough, I'm also doing Doctor Coppleius also at YMCA on Friday 20th June at 7.30 p.m.

And then comes Buxton Fringe. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Getting a Buxton Fringe venue has always been a straightforward task before, but you have no idea how much pain I've been through with this one. But two months after embarking on the innocent-looking task of getting a venue arranged, I've done it. Cheshire Cheese on Tuesday 15th July at 7.30 p.m. This is another free event, because pub venues in Buxton are difficult to do as ticketed events and it's easier to do it this way. This is on top of the Doctor Coppelius shows I've already booked at Scrivener's (9th, 10th, 15th & 16th July, at at 5.30 p.m.), and as the observant amongst you will notice, this means I'm doing two shows in three hours. I'll manage.

However, the bad news is that I won't be coming to Tunbridge Wells Fringe this year. Normally I make some snarky comments about who's being difficult, but on this occasion, it was entirely down to a cock-up made by me. I was so busy sorting out venues at other fringes, I left this one till last, and forgot to check the deadlines - which turned out to be a lot earlier than I assumed. Sorry Tunbridge fans, not this year. Hopefully next year.

And that's us caught up. I now have one fewer item on my list of things to be stressed about. Looking forward to getting this going again, and I leave you with the latest work on the new automated system.

And the second announcement in as many days. You didn't think we'd forgotten about this, didn't you?

Three performances at Brighton Fringe this year: Saturday 3rd May at 5.00 p.m, then Sunday 4th at 12.30 p.m., and one final game on Saturday 17th May at 5.00 p.m.

Thanks once again to The Rotunda who made this who thing possible by partnering with me. If you're not near Brighton, don't worry - now that these shows are booked in, I can turn my attention to more shows elsewhere.

Hope to be back soon with more updates.

I can finally announce the thing I've been planning in the background: this July, there is going to be a Durham Free Fringe!

This is starting off as a collaboration between myself and Aadil Kurji. Aadil is a comedian who used to run comedy nights in Bristol, and we've seen an opportunity to pool our experience and connections to get a new pop-up venue running and build on the excellent work Durham Fringe has done in making the city into a Festival City.

We are not yet ready to start programming. We still have details to work out before we make promises to anybody. However, we are now at the stage where we can say the following:

• For those of you familiar with the Free Fringe in Edinburgh, this works to a similar model. There is no charge to take part and no charge to watch a show. Instead, we ask that if you enjoyed show, you donate to the performer at the end of the show.
• Durham Free Fringe is jointly run between Aadil Kurji and myself (Chris Neville-Smith). Aadil is taking the lead with comedy whilst I am taking the lead in theatre, but all major decisions are taking jointly between us.
• We will be primarily based at The Holy GrAle on Crossgate, a few minutes' walk from the city centre. We are considering other spaces too, but this is where we've pencilled in the majority of our time.
• The Free Fringe will run on the 23rd July to 27th July alongside Durham Fringe. However, like our Edinburgh counterparts, we are not directly affiliated with the fringe and run our operations separately.
• We are also not affiliated with Durham Comedy Festival, also operating at the Holy GrAle (and we didn't know about this until a few weeks ago), but we wish them the best of luck when they run on Monday 26th May.
• We are not aiming to compete with Durham Fringe. A free fringe venue is a very different model to a conventional venue, largely suiting different acts and different audiences. However, we have been in discussions with Durham Fringe about setting up a free fringe, and we hope to co-ordinate where it's in our interests to work together.
• In the first year, we intend to keep things simple with a small and manageable programme. But in the long run, we want to be as inclusive as possible.

If you want to be part of this, there is no need to do anything yet. We will be announcing how to get involved as soon as we have make decisions. But if you want to express your interest now, whether to be on stage, in the audience, or just helping out, you can email hello@durhamfreefringe.org.uk, and we will let you know when he have further news.

All very exciting now. We can't wait to share further news on what's coming in due course.

Postscript 17/02:

One afterthought. Durham Fringe's application deadline is this week, and we are aware that some of you might be unsure of whether to go for Fringe or Free Fringe.

For the time being, here is our position. If you are considering both us and Durham Fringe, we advise you to apply to Durham Fringe. We'd love to work with as many of you as possible, but until we have a better idea of availability and uptake with us we don't know if we'd be in a position to programme you, and it's not fair to ask you to pass up the chance to get a slot at Durham Fringe.

Durham Fringe's deadline is this Wednesday (19th Feb). If you don't get programmed by Durham Fringe, by all means come to us next.

As soon as we have made a decision on how we're going to programme on our side, we'll let you know.

Update 07/03:

Thank you to those of you who've expressed an interest so far. If you're interested but haven't already contacted us, don't worry, it's not a race. We hope to commence programming shortly and we'll give more details about what we're after.

In the meantime, we can now announce our second venue: The Station House, underneath the viaduct on the road up to the station. That's all for now: details about how this is going to work coming soon.

Had lots of stuff going on in the background, but I can finally make the first announcement.

It was always my plan to do Doctor Coppelius in 2024 as a WIP to bring it back this year. At the time, my plan was to do the WIP in the tiny space of Scrivener's Bookshop and transfer to the Green Man Gallery. Unfortunately, The Green Man Gallery is no more, forcing me to rethink my plans - and after taking on board feedback from everyone who said how much they loved the bookshop setting, I've decided to stick with Scrivener's. Obviously there's the capacity of twelve to consider, but I think four performances should do it. If they sell out, I'll look into adding more.

For those of you who saw it last year, the script has been substantially reworked, especially the last third. Thank you to everyone who turned up, because I learned a lot from that early run-through. There is now, I hope, a much stronger transition from idealistic youth to sinister recluse. If you can't get to Buxton, don't worry - I have plans in motion for other performances too. I will try to announce them as they come in, but in the meantime, you can keep track of all of them here.

I've just had something else confirmed today, but that announcement will be coming later. No prizes for guessing that one though.