Zena Barrie and I set up Camden Fringe in 2006 to make a London alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe. We did it in response to Edinburgh's increasing size and cost. We felt that there was a need for a return to traditional fringe values, where new acts, companies and writers could find a platform to perform new work where they would have a fighting chance of getting an audience and making some money.

Last year, 2007, Camden Fringe stepped up a level. It proved a great success. Over the four weeks 30 July to 26 August in our two small venues we held 175 performances of 47 different shows. It was as every bit as hectic as that sounds. We cancelled just 4 performances due to poor audience attendance, which is quite an achievement given that shows were starting as early as 3pm and as late 10.30pm in a city that was not working on festival time.

There is an almost certainly entirely fictional, infamous, statistic that the average audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is 4. A Google search for 'average fringe audience' turns up a number of alternative suggestions such as 3, 5, 6, 8 and 11. Whatever the exact figure is, the point is that Edinburgh Fringe audiences are notoriously small.

The Camden Fringe can hardly boast gigantic audience, but given the size of the spaces, they were pretty respectable. Our average audience was 18. Of these 18, 1 ticket is a comp or a free press ticket and 1 is a 'returning visitor' - someone who had previously been to another Camden Fringe show. Stat fans might also be interested in knowing that 59% of our average audience pre-booked tickets and 41% turned up and brought tickets on the door.

Nearly all the shows got a degree of press coverage - if not a full review then at least a small preview and picture in one of the London free sheets. As most of the performances were running for only 3 or 4 nights, they would be unlikely, under normal circumstances, to get much press interest at all. But, framed within the festival context, and given the dearth of theatre and comedy taking place in the capital during August, we were able to get a very respectable amount of previews and reviews. However, a certain website that claims to be 'The UK’s comedy website' failed to list any of our comedy performances after the first week. Usually very reliable, the administrators seemed to be oblivious to anything happening outside Edinburgh, which is a real shame for us, and audiences everywhere in the UK that isn't Edinburgh.

The feedback we've had from audiences and performers has been great. We found that audiences weren't exclusive to each show, as they often are at the Etcetera, the theatre we run all year round. We had people book to see 2 more different shows in a day and a number return to see a few different shows over the course of 4 weeks. Our best customer was Chris, a local chap who came to see almost every Camden Fringe show. The last time we asked him, his favourite show was Nice Mum, but we haven't seen him since the Fringe ended, so it might have changed since then.

We are, of course, consummate professionals and incredibly organised, so we didn't have any huge disasters or unexpected problems. The only issues we did have were technical – our biggest problem being one of the dimmers at the Etcetera failing and blowing the electrics on day two, so we had to operate using just half the available lights for 24 hours until we could get an electrician and a replacement dimmer.

The space at Liberties is literally a room above a pub and, though it is used as it is for gigs year round, we wanted to kit it out more theatrically. We had a stage custom-built, put up a black back-drop, and installed a few dimmable lights. The sound was a bit of a problem when we discovered that none of the audio could be mixed - it was either microphone or music, rather than both. Luckily we hadn't programmed any karaoke and the acts all coped, but this is something that we'll have to sort out for 2008.

It definitely appears that we made our move to set up the Camden Fringe at the right time, identifying and exploiting the need to for an alternative to Edinburgh. There was a slew of negative press about the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007. Bruce Dessau kicked it off with the question 'Is Edinburgh Killing Comedy?' His theory was that the increase in shows and big acts playing big acts was stifling creativity in the long term and preventing new acts from getting a look in (1).

The following week the big press story was that comedy was bringing about the demise of theatre and other performance arts - but the argument was broadly the same: that big name acts were exploiting the Fringe to make money to the detriment of smaller shows and newer acts (2).

Halfway through the festival the biggest venue managers in Edinburgh were putting their hands in the air and admitting that there were more shows than the audience could sustain. William Burdett-Coutts of the Assembly Rooms spoke out to say that 2007 was 'the first time I have felt there are too many shows in Edinburgh' and the Pleasance's Anthony Alderson also admitted that audiences were being spread too thinly 'I do think we’ve reached capacity, I'm not sure we can get any bigger' (3).

So, to the future. Camden Fringe 2008 runs from the 28 July to 24 August and we are currently in the midst of programming. We've had over 100 applications and have added a third venue - the Camden People's Theatre - to cope with demand. Last year, we suggested that Camden Fringe is like a nursery slope - where acts can learn, make mistake and build their confidence before tackling the slalom (the Edinburgh Festival). We'd like to stay true to this, while perhaps also becoming a golfing range for more established acts who just fancy working on their swing.

END

(c) Michelle Flower 25 May 2008