The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society announced which 180 shows will receive £2,500 Keep It Fringe grants to bring their work to this year's Fringe.
The initiative launched in 2023 is rooted in the Fringe vision to give anyone a stage and everyone a seat, and aims to remove some of the barriers they face in bringing their work.
After Phoebe Waller-Bridge launched the initiative in 2023, this year it was bolstered with £1 million from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) over two years (2024 and 2025).
The 30 assessors had to whittle 749 applications down to this year's successful 180 applicants.
The recipients reflect a typical variety of Fringe content from local amateur dance group Edinburgh Ballet's adaptation of Robert Burns' Tam O'Shanter to salty stand-up comedy.
Work covers a range of subjects from immigration to fake news and imposter syndrome to séances, ADHD diagnoses to fortune cookies, and sibling dynamics to addiction, with companies and artists covering nearly every genre in the Fringe programme.
Representing a mix of free and ticketed shows, 41% of the successful applicants identify as disabled or have a health condition, and more than one in three are said to come from a working-class background.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: 'The Fringe has launched the careers of generations of comedians, actors and writers by giving them a chance to showcase their work at the largest arts festival in the world.
'This UK Government funding will help nurture future stars by giving them a helping hand to bring their talent to Edinburgh, while also ensuring the Fringe retains its reputation for supporting up-and-coming artists.'
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: 'We are massively grateful to DCMS for providing funding that has enabled us to continue the Keep it Fringe fund for another two years. We know that for many artists the financial challenges of putting on a show can prevent some from coming to the Fringe, and this funding will enable the Edinburgh Fringe to be more accessible to artists from across the UK.
'As one of the greatest platforms for creative expression in the world, the Fringe offers artists the opportunity to gather, network with industry partners and explore future career opportunities. I encourage all artists to continue to reach out to our Artist Services team to see how we can provide further support as we hurtle towards this year's Festival Fringe.'
The 180 Successful Recipients of Keep It Fringe (alphabetical):
- ¡Ay Mija!
- "Why, Ifrah Why?"
- 1 Moment in Time
- 1 Murder: The Mind Reading Lawyer
- 2 Muslim 2 Furious: Mecca Drift
- Aaron Twitchen: Himbo
- A Brief Case of Crazy
- After Shakespeare - Richard III
- Alasdair Wallace & Tom Hutchinson - "Are We Not Men?"
- Alexander Bennett: Emotional Daredevil
- All the Fraudulent Horse Girls
- Ambitious Underachiever
- An Octopus, The Universe n Stuff
- Barbara Fernandez Singing, Sagging and Shagging
- The Beatbox Collective: 'What's Your Sound?'
- Bella Humphries: Square Peg
- Bellringers
- Best in Class
- Big Year
- Birdwatching
- Blodwen's in Business
- BLUBBER
- Blues and Burlesque
- Bot Brothers: A Story of Our Times
- Brennan Reece: Me Me Me
- Burning Down The House
- Burst
- Caravan Club with Miss Missy Heavens
- Carl Donnelly: Boosegumps
- Celtic Roots
- Chameleon
- The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return
- Character Flaw
- A Chip Off the Gold Block
- CHOIN
- Chokeslam
- Chris Cook: The Art Of Taking Part
- Chris Tavener is Faking Cool
- Christian Dart: Bigger Than The Christmas Turkey
- Clownfishing
- Cobin Millage: Fifteen Pints With a Wax Figure of Renowned Painter Pablo Picasso
- Colin Hoult: Colin
- Comedy for the Curious
- Cringe
- Crying Shame
- Darkside
- Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party
- Delighted
- Diary of a Gay Disaster
- Doom & Glitter: A Tribute To Tom Waits
- DRUM
- The Duchess of Buckingham Regrets to Inform You That Her Husband Is Dead
- Duck
- The Duncan Brothers: Blood Sword
- Edy Hurst's Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself
- Elaine Robertson: Delulu
- The Emu War: A New Musical
- Experiment Human
- Failure Project
- Finding Splashman
- Float
- For the Love of Spam
- FREAK OUT!
- The Freemartin
- Free Mason
- Galentine's Day
- Gamble
- Glass Crumpet's Best of 2024
- Gogo Boots Go
- Goldfish
- GOOD BOY
- The Good Iranian
- Granny Norbag Saves The Planet
- Grow
- HALF MAN || HALF BULL PART ONE: THESEUS & HALF MAN || HALF BULL PART TWO: DAEDALUS
- Hardly Working
- A History of Fortune Cookies
- How I Learned to Swim
- How to Catch a Book Witch
- Hysterical
- I am Claire Parry (very funny stand up)
- I Did Something I Shouldn't Have
- I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life
- I See My Sister
- I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
- Identities
- In Defiance of Gravity
- In the Round
- In The Sick of It
- Instructions
- Iona Fyfe
- Is the WiFi Good in Hell?
- It's the Economy, Stupid!
- Jake Donaldson: Spectacle
- Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!
- Josephine Lacey: Autism Mama
- Jukebox Jury
- Just Aretha
- Kate Hammer: Double Virgin On the Rocks (with a Twist)
- Kate-Lois Elliott: How to Belong Without Joining a Cult
- Lessons On Revolution
- LIFE
- LIMBO - a sonata for acrobatic violinist and acrobat
- Locomotive For Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit
- Logan, A One Woman Show (Because only one of us survived)
- Look After Your Knees
- Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon
- Lost Girl
- Louise Atkinson: She's Got The Look
- Love Your Work
- Made of Magic – poetry of rage & (be)longing
- make the Bed
- MANikin
- Maria Fedulova: Russian. Mafia. Family.
- Mark Nicholas This Is Not The Autistic You Are Looking For
- Material Girl
- Midsommar
- MIME CLUB
- Mind Milk
- Mitzi Fitz (WIP)
- My Brain is Soup, Your Hands are the Spoons
- Neurochatter
- Non Player Character
- Occupational Hazard
- Oh, Calm Down
- Paper Swans
- please DON'T see our show
- plewds
- Pool's Gold
- Psyche
- The Queen's Head
- Rachel Creeger: Ultimate Jewish Mother
- Rice
- Rockstar Magician
- RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual)
- Ruby Carr: eBae
- Saint
- Sam Dodghon's Memory is Full
- Sam Hickford
- Sam Hurst Magic! Mayhem! Memes
- Sarah Roberts: Silkworm
- SAVOY! - Everybody's Doing It
- Scaffolding
- The Screen Test
- Selena Mersey: Madonna/Whore
- Seymour Fucking Mace You Cunts
- Shapiro: A Pop Star Musical
- A Show About Tomorrow
- The Shroud Maker
- Sian Davies: Band of Gold
- Sing, Sign and Sensory
- Sisters Three
- Sisyphean Quick Fix
- Sitting Pretty with Kitty
- Snake Boy Takes Manhattan
- Son of a Bitch
- Sorry (I Broke Your Arms And Legs)
- Sour Candi
- Steffan Alun and Support: Free Stand-Up, but at What Cost
- Stephanie Laing: Rudder
- Summoning Sondheim
- Surrender
- Tam o'Shanter
- This Porno does not pass the Bechdel Test
- This Show Contains No Maths, and other lies
- Tit Swingers
- Tom Short – Succes
- Turbo Town
- Ugly Sisters
- waiting
- The Weird Sisters
- What songs may do...
- When Judas Met John: Songs of Dylan and Lennon
- Wish You Were Here
- With the Best Will in the World
- Wood Owl and the Box of Wonders
- The World Got So Dumb
- Yes, We're Related
- Yvonne Hughes is Absolutely Riddled
- Zac Zac Zoom: A Story of Wheels and (F)eels
The Assessors (alphabetical):
30 assessors supported the Fringe Society in reviewing the applications received.
- Alex Howarth
- Apphia Campbell, Playwright and performer; Fringe Society elected board member
- Ashley Davies
- Bec Martin, Artistic Director of New Diorama
- Ben Humphrey, Artistic Director / Producer
- Charlotte Laidet, Festival Director Leicester Comedy Festival
- Chris Cooke, Co-Editor of ThreeWeeks
- Dan Kok, Producer/Programmer
- Ellen Tupman, member USA Board of Advisors to the Fringe Society
- Graeme Farrow, Artistic and Creative Director, Wales Millennium Centre
- Gemma Curtis, Head of Programming, Worthing Theatres and Museum
- Geoff Rowe, Founder, Leicester Comedy Festival
- Hannah Churchill, Freelance Script Reader and Dramaturg
- Jake Orr, Freelance Creative Producer
- JD Henshaw, Producer & Festival Director
- Jess Donn
- Jessica Toomey, Director, Frog and Bucket
- Kathryn Pierce, Founder/Director of Somewhere and co-Editor of Somewhere: For Us LGBTQ+ magazine
- Laura Guthrie, Artist Development Manager, Graeae Theatre Company
- Louisa Bartlett-Pestell, Director of Programming and Participation, artsdepot
- Live Comedy & Theatre Producer (anonymous)
- Matt Panesh, Independent Theatre Maker
- Murray Robertson, Arts Writer
- Natalia Mallo, Curator
- Neil Weir, Chair of Grid Iron Theatre Company and a judge for the Scottish Theatre Awards on the Fringe; Fringe Society Elected Board member
- Pax Lowey, Director: Actually Rather Good Comedy Festival and Camp Trans; freelance producer/programmer; elected member of the Fringe Society board
- Rachel O'Regan, F-Bomb Theatre
- Ruth McCarthy, Artistic Director, Outburst Arts
- Sasapin Siriwanij, the Artistic Director of BIPAM (Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting)
- Sharon Burgess