Fringe Brochure Cover 2003

 2002 was the year the Fringe made the first step towards independence by being a separate pull out guide within the Brighton Festival Brochure.  In 2003 this was developed further into a completely independent brochure and re-branded as ‘Fringe’. The number of events again grew significantly. The new look was so successful its reputation as the third largest Fringe in the world became globally known.

In 2006 it became legally a company in its own right and appointed an independent board of directors.

Fringe Brochure Cover 2004

 The Fringe office administers the twin marketing tools offering the opportunity to market events in 150,000 guides and on a website that 24,000 people visited in May 2006 alone. It also provides a one-stop ticketing facility through an in-person, telephone & on-line Box Office.

We don’t programme events; the Fringe is totally open access. That means anyone can put on an event and be included in the listings in the brochure and on the website on payment of a fee. By definition the Fringe can include any art form, from performance to visual arts. Each year the range of events included expands, circus to exhibition, from classical concerts to club nights and from street theatre to tours, all artistic life is here!

Aims to enable the development of new and established work to attract fresh audiences, press and promoters.

To provide an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than just a single production.

To have no artistic judgment or selection criteria imposed on registrants, enabling the Fringe to attract a huge range of events and talent and a mixed quality of work from professional to amateur.

Ability to create an opportunity and reason to take a chance of what you get involved in; Audiences taking a chance on tickets and the shows they see and the performing companies and artists in the events the bring.

Fringe Brochure Cover 2005

Difference between Fringe and Festival…

One of our most frequently asked questions is “What’s the difference between the Festival and Fringe.

The basic difference is that the Festival is curated and the Fringe isn’t.

The Festival has a team of programmers who seek out work in their specialist genre from around the world or especially commissioned events. They then bring them to the city paying all expenses, venues and accommodation; the Festival will then keep the ticket sales revenue.

The Fringe is completely un-vetted for quality and genre; it’s a totally open access festival. All events are self managed by the companies and artists putting them on; they fund themselves, find their own venues, and produce any additional print separate from the brochure. The Fringe doesn’t get involved on a production level but will have many easy advice channels for producers. The registered companies will keep their box office ticket or sales revenue. 

Fringe Brochure Cover 2006

Fringe Brochure Cover 2007 (woman version)

Fringe Stats and facts…

• 3^rd largest Fringe in world after Edinburgh and Adelaide.

•  In 2007 we were - 3 weeks, 240 venues, 570 events, 3199 show times and 191,940 estimated minutes of fun (118 visual arts & 452 performances).

• Grown out of a main/international Festival and became a separate entity and a company in its own right since September 2007.

•  In 2007 - 73 thousand tickets sold approx £750,000 pounds worth.

• Web stats for May 2007 during the fringe - 40 thousand unique visitors (7 to 10 thousand plus a month average rest of year), 70 thousand page views, 100,000 visits and over 10 million hits.

• Audience are mainly aged between 25 – 34 Mosaic survey Market reported Urban Intelligence remains the core audience (41%) – BFF has a very high proportion of ‘Urban Intelligence’ present in its audience, higher than any other major arts venue in Sussex.

• Annual turn over is £200,000 and it is a charity.

• Currently 70% of Fringe participants are from a ‘BN’ postcode, although it is attracting more national and international artists every year.  

Fringe revenue (how we survive)…

The Brighton Festival Fringe has two main sources of revenue from participant’s registration fees and advertising in the brochure. Its other main income it through sponsorship, there are many ways in which to support the Fringe while the sponsor builds its brand, from headline to page sponsorship to in-kind support. It also receives a small amount of funding from the Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove city council.

Fringe Brochure Cover 2007 (man version)