About Laughing Horse

The Free Festival is organised by its director Alex Petty, and a team of voulenteers. It is run by Laughing Horse Festivals Ltd - a sister company of Laughing Horse Comedy Ltd. And although comedy is where we began we present shows from all Fringe genres, with an ever expanding programme of Theatre, Cabaret, Music, Children's, Spoken Word and other shows every year.

The Beginning

Laughing Horse have run the Free Festival since 2004, and also run festival venues and produce shows globally - at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th largest world Fringe festivals in Adelaide, Perth (Australia) and Brighton, as well as at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Hollywood Fringe and a number of smaller festivals in the UK and Asia. when it comes to festivals we know what we are talking about, and how to ensure your show is the best it can be at one of our venues. 

More About Laughing Horse

Laughing Horse Comedy is also a professional production company that promotes comedy events and venues throughout the UK, books comedy venues large and small, promotes on of the UK's largest new comedy searches, and teaches stand-up comedy through its comedy courses.

"The Laughing Horse's free Fringe shows serve as a useful reminder of that frequently encountered concept - The Spirit of the Fringe" - Time Out Magazine

About the Free Festival

The Free Festival began in 2004, and in that time the Free festival has grown from a single venue to being one of the largest producers of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, in 2019 we had 25 venues and more than 38 performance spaces, and usually we have over 400 shows and more than 9,000 performances at our venues anuaully.

Things were quieter in 2021 as the Fringe started to recover from it's enforced COVID break in 2020. We built up again in 2022, and will bigger again in 2023 - our aim is to now get back to where we were before COVID ruined things for everyone!

We believe in Quality - we supply quality venues, and quality support for you and your shows - you supply a quality show.

Experience the Edinburgh Fringe

The Free Festival allows performers to experience the Edinburgh Fringe, in professionally managed and equipped venues, without the overbearing costs of the paid venues, or the shambolic nature of some other free venue promoters who only provide empty rooms and expect you to provide all of your own venue equipment, or who run shows in rooms that are not separate performance spaces.

We believe as a performer you should be concentrating on your show, not other concerns about venues that are unsuitable. A Free show should be treated as professionally as a paid show. A good quality show in a good quality venue!

As a major part of the main Edinburgh Fringe, and all our shows are part of the main Fringe programme - and as such all of our performers gain all of the benefits of being a Fringe Performer and being part of the world's largest arts festival, with performers qualifying for all of the major awards, and getting the opportunity of getting reviews, or being seen by promoters and other industry people.

You can achieve everything you want out of Edinburgh with a free show, without the overbearing costs of paid venues.

Awards

Back in 2013 two of the main Edinburgh Comedy Awards went to Free Shows: Adrienne Truscott was part of our programme within the Heroes of Fringe section curated by Bob Slayer. The third main comedy award to the performer friendly Stand venue.

This changed the landscape in Edinburgh, showing performers and producers that you can get everything you want from the Fringe and not have to be tied to the huge costs of the mega-paid-venues and so-called "Big Four".  There have been a huge number of more free award winners and nominees since then, who have returned to performing for free after their wins, and continued to expand thier careers in performance on stage and on TV.

The very first ever free show award nominee was way back in 2010, Free Festival show "An Audience with Imran Yusuf" - This show become the first ever free show to be nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Awards (Formally the Perrier Awards), in 2012 two of the five nominees for the inaugural Cabaret awards where free festival shows. Since then Free Festival shows have also been nominated for and won awards from The Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Three Weeks Editor Awards, Total Theatre Awards, Musical Theatre Matters Awards, Fresh Air Radio Awards, Mervin Stutter's Pick of the Fringe and The Malcolm Hardee awards - an event that is hosted as part of the Free Festival.

More Awards

In 2012 Free Festival show "Austentatious" was widely regarded as the best show at the Fringe, and they returned in 2013, eight of the nine top free shows rated by the Scotsman newspaper where Free Festival shows, and our shows in 2013 raked in 40 five-star and 140 four-star reviews. These numbers have grown from there, and The Free Festival has become known as the place to see quality shows, as well as for shows that offer the full diversity of the Fringe programme.

Every year since then has been another big year of awards and accolades, with our free shows being a highly critically regarded each year - and this could grow next year with your show!

We were particularly happy in 2022 when one of our shows 'Best in Class', a project helping working class comedians get to Edinburgh, won the Panel Prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. With a Malcolm Hardee Award and awards for Theatre and Comedy, it was a great return post-covid break which then continud into 2023!

Quality Venues

We seek to only operate from quality venues that are welcoming to audiences and performers, situated in central, popular areas of Edinburgh - there's no point coming the Fringe and trying to run a show in a venue miles out of town, or somewhere unsuitable for as some other free venue operators try to do. 

All of our venues are set-up, at minimum, to the standard that you would expect of small comedy club and in many cases to a much higher standard, with sound systems, lighting, stages and AV equipment.

And in the case of venues such as the Counting House’s ballroom, Cabaret Voltaire and The Three Sisters, we offer a high specification performance space on a par, if not better than many large paid venues - with full lighting rig and large sound systems, big stages and room suitable for large theatre productions, full cabaret shows or big-name comedians. 

Performers should perform...

We believe that for performers to produce the best possible shows they should be concentrating on their performances, which is why we fully manage the set-up. Performers should not be worrying about finding equipment for venues, coping with performance spaces without facilities or at the other end of the scale worrying about large financial losses. We aim to foster the best atmosphere possible at our venues, to help you achieve your Fringe goals, be they media attention, excellent reviews, furthering your career in the arts or simply performing during the Fringe to large audiences and having a very enjoyable August.

Overall we encourage an atmosphere of teamwork, and foster an ethos where performers volunteer to help maintain the success of all our venues and shows, who all work together to the benefit of everyone - with the best in new talent being encouraged along-side bigger name performers.

Name Dropping...

Since we started running free venues we have had full runs of shows from the likes of Phil Kay, Janey Godley, Helen Lederer, Pappy’s Fun Club, John Gordillo, Jim Tavare, Ellie Taylor, Carl Donnelly, Joel Dommett, Seann Walsh, Lewis Schaffer, Liam Williams, Imran Yusuf, Nick Wilty, Jarred Christmas, Sol Bernstein, Martin Mor, Anis Desai, Mae Martin, Andrew Doyle, Lynn Ruth Miller, Sarah-Louise Young, John Lenahan, and many, many more - plus appearances on our stages from performers such as Alan Carr, Frankie Boyle, Russell Kane, Scott Capurro, Stewart Lee, Arthur Smith, Richard Herring, Brendan Burns, Marcus Brigstoke, Reg D. Hunter, Dan Antopolski, Daniel Kitson, Mark Thomas, Josie Long and Paul Foot - amongst many other stars of comedy, theatre, music and dance.

Many of our shows have been taken from the Fringe and gone from there to break into a full time career in the arts, UK and international tours, to the the west end, Broadway, working across the world and appearing on Radio, TV and in movies - along with performing at Festivals worldwide, and so much more! 

A Mixed Programme

We run all of our venues to provide a mixed programme of shows that encompass all Fringe genres including theatre, music, comedy, cabaret, opera, musicals, children’s shows, events, spoken word and art displays – all programmed by experienced producers in each area.

Our venues have capacities from 20 to 150 and are able to accommodate a huge variety of performances. Each venue also has a number of friendly bars and spaces for audiences to congregate, including four with dedicated outdoor areas and outdoor bars. We manage the three largest free venues in Edinburgh: The Free Sisters, the Counting House and Cabaret Voltaire - the festival's very own free mega-venues.

"I Can't Work Under These Conditions!"

We aim to encourage and create better conditions for performers and venue staff, and better value for audiences while being inclusive of all performers and working with others who share that ethos. We support the Fair Fringe campaign.

We believe that being negative about other organisations detrimental to everybody’s aims and would rather concentrate on doing our best to promote the shows in our own venues, and work with other organisations where we can - and this has included working with Underbelly, The Museum of Scotland, Kopparberg, Heroes of Comedy, Freestival and Various smaller venues free and paid over our years at the Fringe. 

The Free Festival as a whole gains fantastic reviews, there are award winners and nominees and coverage from media organisations each year including Sky News, Reuters, The BBC, STV, The International Television Festival, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times as well as many reviews and articles in Scottish and Edinburgh publications and media such as the Scotsman, The List, the Metro, Leith FM, Forth FM, Chortle and other media and web based media. Our performers achieved success with awards, a huge number of reviews and further work, higher profiles and tours and productions of their shows in the UK and internationally. 

Why Free?

One of the two main gripes of performers at the Fringe is the costs of producing a show at the Fringe, which is often quoted as being between £6,000 and £10,000, and performers having to present their shows to small audiences - a problem that seems to be getting worse each year. By performing your show for free you can negate both of those issues.

We don’t charge a hire fee for the spaces, therefore removing a large amount of your costs, and audiences aren’t charged to come in, meaning much larger audiences – and at the Fringe that still means people are coming to see your show, it is just that being free means they come in large numbers because of the overall dissatisfaction with high ticket prices across the Fringe in general.

Audiences are asked for a contribution on the way out or for some shows have the option to get a 'Pay What You Can' ticket in advance, all of which goes 100% to the performer.

"[Free shows are] a reminder of the roots of all this. The main fringe is colossally expensive big business now, it’s rather disingenuous to call it “Fringe” when it’s now a main event and cost the price of a small car to put on." - Julia Chamberlain (So You Think You're Funny/Chortle)

Fill up those seats!

The average audience for one of our Free or Pay-What-You Can shows starts at around the 40-50 mark, and grows from there depending on the size of show or profile of the performer. Although a lot depends a lot on time, location and the performers own PR.

The average donation for a free and unticketed shows is usually £2-£3, with this increased to £6-£8 for Pay-What-You-Can shows who successfully get advanced ticket reservations when audiences choose how much to pay to reserve a seat.

Many performers will take home over £100 a day, with some performers reporting collections in excess of £200 or more, and much more with Pay-what-you-can tickets for a successful show - particularly for the big name shows and larger productions.  

"What should worry [now ex-Fringe director] Morgan and, indeed, the Big Four, not entirely smiling all the way to the bank, is the continuing growth of the free Fringe, where punters pay what they wish at the end of a show; some comics report they have made more from the collection bucket than they ever did at the main venues."- The Guardian

Costs - Almost Free!

The cost to use our venues is completely free, there are no hire charge for the space at all.

To cover the cost of equipment, damages and repairs, central Free Festival publicity, technical help, signage and advertising we ask each show contribute into central funds - the full details of this for this years Fringe is here.

This is kept as low as possible and we estimate it to be the equivalent of around one-and-half days collection for small-medium sized free and unticketed shows, and similar for ticketed pay-what-you-want shows.

For this you get all of the venue equipment that is listed in the venue plans, it covers all venue signage and advertising banners for all shows, plus the production of The Free Festival brochure and App, the website, mobile site and a lot of general PR, advertising, posters and flyers. So we think this is great value!

There are no hidden costs payable to us, it is all up front and available on this website.

Unlike some other 'free' venues we do not promise to be completely free and then ask you to fund-raise, sell items, or give you surprise last minute 'voluntary' contribution demands - which ultimately makes the free experience more expensive with less provided.

What we offer is simple, upfront and honest: You pay the contribution and you get all of the services listed above. and usually more, as we try to do more for our performers each year and constantly improve our spaces and services.

Being Part of the Main Fringe and Advertising Costs

Along with this our contrbution need to pay for your entry into the main Fringe programme, last year that was around £295 for a full run of shows, with discounts for shorter runs.

You must enter the Main Fringe programme, as without this your show does not exist to a large amount of the audience, and is completely invisible to press, media and the arts industry who use the main Fringe's database to find you and your show.

Without this programme entry you are not part of the official Fringe, and your show will verly likely not be successful. Put simply, if you do not go into the programme to save £295 in March, it will likely loose you more than £1000 in August as you struggle for audiences - and any chance of career progression will be limited.

Without going into the Fringe programme it simply isn't worth looking at putting on a Fringe show this year you as you lose out on so many of the benefits, it is better to wait until another year.

On top of the Fringe programme, you will have to pay for your own show advertising - you still need to get out there and find an audience to help fill your room.

This can be as little as £140 with the special deals we have organised with Tenfold printing, and this covers flyers and 50 posters - and it can be as much as you want to invest into the sucess of your show.

Indeed, that should be seen as the minimum advertising required, as even though your show is free you will still need to publicise your performances to get good sized audiences. You can do more, and the principle of the more you put into your show, the more you will get out of it really holds true. Use your funds wisely and if you invest in PR, further advertising and more marketing your audiences and media coverage will grow. If you treat your show professionally, then the media and audiences will treat you as a professional performer.

Other Costs

Other than that, it is up to you – obviously you will have your accommodation costs, your travel costs, plus it is up to you how much further you push your promotion by getting professional PR, or increasing your advertising, display advertising in publications. In terms if display advertising the Free Festival has negotiated discounts with several publications. Remember that you are putting on a professional show, and your production should be treated professionally - the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

With the collection or Pay-what-you-can ticket money taken, many shows will brake even, and some will make money - but a lot of shows it will still cost money to be in Edinburgh, though a lot less than a hiring a paid venue.

Most shows losses are counted in the low hundreds at the Free Festival  – and of course that can be recouped from work gained after the festival. if you are able you can also sell merchandise after your performance to increase your income further (with 100% of merchandise profits going to the performer).

Discounts

The Free festival also helps you to enjoy the Fringe by offering performers discounts at our venues bars, and on food and drink, to help keep the day-to-day costs of being at the Fringe down, plus free internet access and networking and socializing events throughout the month.

Being a free show you are also currently exempt from PRS music charges - and these are minumised for pay-what-you-can ticketed shows.

“There is a rebellion at the Fringe this year. High venue costs have caused some artists to take matters into their own hands. Doug Stanhope is charging £7349 for a one-off show in someone's living room and the Free Fringe organisations have brought more acts than ever to Edinburgh at no extra charge” – The List

What Will I Get Out Of It?

As well as the experience of performing intensively, and the enjoyment of being in Edinburgh with a large group of like-minded people in a welcoming and friendly atmosphere, you will also gain significant chances to network with other professionals and further your careers.

With good PR you will get press and media attention, along with reviews. if the show is good, performers will be approached by promoters or bookers for further work, potentially win awards, and be invited to perform nationally and internationally - you will see our performers at other UK Festivals, in New York, at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Hollywood Fringe, doing runs in West End Theatres and in many other places around the world, in one case a festival run in Bejing - all because of their Free Festival shows. You can also significantly improve as a performer, and every performer comes back from the Fringe with more experience and more professional contacts.

In short you can achieve anything that you could do in a paid venue, but without the significant costs of this.

Conclusion

“Best Freebies: www.freefestival.co.uk – shows are free to audiences, venues do not charge fees to performers. The Free Festival is hosting 157 shows – with an expanded programme which now includes children’s shows, a free night-club and an opera. Performers tend to pass round a hat at the end of every show – but there is no pressure and you’ll enjoy the relaxed and friendly atmosphere.” – The Scotsman

"Free shows are great. I feel I should confess that I did one myself this year so I do have a vested interest in this. But overall I think they’re great for acts to be able to try stuff out without the chance of losing thousands of pounds. I think it gives audiences the opportunity to see some fantastic offering from a broader range of artists." - Tim Arthur, Time Out Comedy Editor