With the soft deadline of the 31st March having passed, it’s time for an update on where we’re at.
Basically, in the last month applications have just gone nuts. This time last month, we were anticipating a free fringe only slightly bigger than last year’s inaugural event, mostly consisting of acts we already now. This month, however, we’ve suddenly been swamped with applications from acts completely new to us. So now the challenge is to make this work.
Our aspiration remains to accommodate everybody who applied, but in order to do this, we’re going to have to scale up our plans for venues. We’re in discussions with several venues, and hope to be able to share news on who’s going to be joining our hub of the Holy GrAle shortly. After that, we can then start building a programme and making offers for slots.
A reminder that this is not a hard and fast deadline, and applications for the Free Fringe will remain open. In particular. if you applied for Durham Fringe but did not get programmed, you are welcome to apply to us if you think your show will work under the less formal conditions of the Free Fringe. Please appreciate, however, that we cannot realistically accommodate 100+ shows coming from Durham Fringe applications. Our plan is to programme the applicants we have first, and then see if we have any gaps that could accommodate late applicants.
(For existing applicants who also have an application to Durham Fringe: don’t worry – we intend to include you.)
Thank you so much to everyone who has applied – we’ve been amazed by the interest there’s been. Thanks also for putting your trust in us – now the job begins to deliver on this trust.
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