Many locals grumble about it as an unwanted imposition. The sheer scale of the Fringe is, for many, now unsustainable. In 1983, the official Fringe Programme ran to 69 pages; in 2019 it was 461! It has grown so large that it puts a strain on the city’s infrastructure. Concerns about a ‘festivalisation’ of Edinburgh connect to other fears about the city, including ‘over tourism’, unfettered development and a degraded ‘streetscape’. Does Leith offer an answer?

One sustained and substantial attempt to address the various challenges faced by the Fringe, especially issues of access, is the Free Fringe model, pioneered by the musical comedian Peter Buckley Hill and his associates.. To differentiate it from ‘imitations’, the Free Fringe usually goes under the title of PBH’s Free Fringe,. This model has been adopted (in part) by other organisations including the rival breakaway Laughing Horse group and Bob Slayer’s Heroes of the Fringe. That there is more than one free Fringe adds further to the confusion of Fringe-goers, some of whom are already confused by the Fringe and Festival distinction!

The Leith hub

In 2024, the Free Fringe made a significant effort to spread, with five venues in Leith. This was not the Free Fringe’s first excursion to Leith (they had a bar boat venue previously), but certainly their most extensive. Leith’s status as a self-contained community (and one of the most densely populated urban areas in Scotland) means that there are plenty of locals around, without a great need to entice people down from the city centre. Leith is also a well-established cultural location - and a place to stay.

As the manager of one of the new Free Fringe venues, the Satyr Bar on Leith Walk, outlined, many Fringe-goers now stay in Leith, having been outpriced from more central areas. He admitted that hosting Fringe shows had been a ‘learning experience’, but, especially at the weekend, the shows at the Satyr Bar had seen good numbers. He felt that the Free Fringe had potential to establish itself in Leith as there were several venues within a short distance, including the Leith Arches. It was well worth Fringe-goers making their way down Leith Walk. Neil Davidson’s The Thermos Museum was one memorable show I caught at the Satyr Bar. Davison eschewed ‘flyering’ to publicise his show and instead lay in a planter outside - what he terms ‘lie-down comedy’.

Before the ‘big boys’ come

The comedian Harun Musho’d performed at one of the other Leith venues, the Strathmore Bar and enjoyed being in such a ‘vibrant area’. He hopes that Leith will increasingly become ‘a hub for the Free Fringe’. The Leith extension seems the best chance of viably expanding the Fringe beyond the centre. Legendary comedy reviewer Kate Copstick believes that the Free Fringe needs to ‘take over Leith’ as ‘a Free Fringe zone’, before the ‘big boys’ come. The Free Fringe can legitimately argue that they are leading efforts to decentralise the Fringe.

It’s easy to imagine this ‘Leith Hub’ becoming a significant ‘USP’ of the Free Fringe. With its independent status and psychological separation from the remainder of the city, Leith seems to manifest the Free Fringe’s distinct identity. It may not last, with the big venues bound to tap into the potential of Leith soon. Free Fringe CEO Luke Meredith is aware of the interest shown by the paid venues. That while ‘nothing has been poached so far…we are aware that eyes are always on us.’ In time, the ‘big four’ Fringe venues (Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, and Underbelly) may get their teeth into Leith.

Every year, venue poaching goes on, The trajectory of venues, established by the Free Fringe and then ‘expropriated’ by paid Fringe organisations is common. What is particularly irksome to those involved with Free Fringe is the unproved suggestion that some of the big venues are using some of the £1.5 million Resilience Fund (aimed to assist Fringe organisations recover from the loss of revenue during the pandemic) to induce venues to jump from the free to paid Fringe.

Such episodes add to a sense of the Free Fringe being deliberately side-lined by the mainstream. This outsider status also fuels some of the organisation’s energy and desire to prove people wrong. The Free Fringe’s excursion into Leith has already given us a taste of a Fringe with a different geographical location, but also with a different flavour.