Barriers to Entry

Another day, another out-of-town stand-up gig for Mirth Control and thus another four plus hours in a car with a perfect stranger. And so another strange, roundabout conversation about the merits of the Edinburgh Free Fringe.

My interlocutor, another comic obviously, was trying to reconcile two contradictory positions: -

1. Much of the beauty and excitement of Edinburgh is that it is entirely an 'open access' event. Unlike other 'curated' arts festivals, if you pays your money you're in the Edfringe programme
   
2. The Free Fringe allows unsuitable acts on stage and both devalues the punters' experience and dilutes the audience numbers that rightfully should be paying to see 'proper acts'. It must be stopped

You can't have it both ways and you never could. Even before the likes of Alex Petty and Peter Buckley-Hill formalised the 'free' concept there were only ever two factors stopping an act, no matter how dreadful, from appearing at the Fringe: money and fear of public failure. As all comics have long since overcome the fear of humiliation money was the only barrier to performing at the Festival. Proper (read: committed) comics will drop £4,000-5,000 to 'do Edinburgh' and they feel that this figure weeded out all but the most deluded.

The real grievance against the Free Fringe is that it allows the dilettante stage time. A counterargument might be that the lowering of the financial barrier to entry enlivens the entire experience by opening it up to a new collection of poorer delusionists.

Hey, if you don't like it you can always walk out.