The Edinburgh Festival Fringe began in 1947, when the Edinburgh International Festival was so successful that it attracted more performers than there were available venues. The Fringe is an open-access festival, and the Fringe Society (the organising incorporated body managing the Fringe) does not make 'artistic' judgements on the work being presented. Effectively it acts as the co-ordinator of a published magazine of events which pulls together the 200-plus venues' individual programmes into one marketing campaign. On top of this it acts as a central ticket office for the Fringe Venues and currently sells over 1.5 million tickets each year, 33 per cent of which are sold online via its website. Other important features of Fringe Festival work include the publication of the Daily Diary (in recent years its been called the Daily Guide as it is now produced in collaboration with the UK national broadsheet The Guardian and its Guardian Guide).

If artists wish to perform on 'the Fringe' they can register with the Fringe Society. This is not compulsory by it is absolutely recommended. Registration costs £10 or £20 (depending on whether the artists decide to receive the information by E-mail or post), but, again, this does not commit artists to taking part in the Fringe. It does mean that artists will be sent information from the Fringe Society which will then help them make an informed decision about participation. There are also useful publications entitled How to Do a Show on the Fringe and How to Sell a Show on the Fringe. There is a fee for inclusion in the Fringe Programme, the copy deadline of which is towards the end of April each year. Companies will also need to come to separate arrangements with their presenting venue and the Society does not take any part in these negotiations. As a very rough estimate for a basic venue with average facilities the Fringe Society estimates that companies usually pay in the region of £100 per 100 seats per day.

Fringe 2006 featured 28,014 performances of 1,867 shows in 261 venues. There were an estimated 16,990 performers on Edinburgh’s Fringe stages; theatre made up 32 per cent of the programme, followed by Comedy (27 per cent) then Music (21 per cent). Musicals, Children’s Shows, Dance and Physical Theatre, Exhibitions and Events each provided around 4 per cent of the programme. Over a third (36 per cent) of all shows were world premieres. 4 per cent were UK premieres, and 10 per cent European premieres. 177 shows at Fringe 2006 were absolutely free.

In 2006 the Fringe sold 1,531,606 tickets - the fourth consecutive year that the Fringe sailed past the million-ticket barrier. The Fringe has a 75 per cent market share of all attendance at Edinburgh’s year-round festivals and annually generates around £75 million for the Edinburgh and Scottish economy. It sells 97 per cent more tickets than it did only 10 years ago (679,147 in 1995, 1,531,606 in 2006). The 28,014 performances staged in 2006 constitute a 94 per cent increase on the number of performances staged 10 years ago.

It should be noted that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe receives practically no public subsidy and raises nearly all its income from the services listed above. That said, its voice in the cultural life of Edinburgh is significant and its economic impact on the City has been huge. Together with the other festivals which go together to make up 'the Edinburgh Festival', the Fringe is one of the most exciting and varied contemporary arts events in the world.