Most free shows are held in pubs

It feels reasonable to be suspicious of the quality of a free event, but in practice they stack up pretty well. Almost all the free shows are traditional stand-up - a hit-and-miss medium at the best of times - and if you do find you've chosen a turkey, at least the disappointment won't be compounded by knowing you're down £15 as well. On the positive side, if you're prepared to take a punt on an unknown newcomer, you've every chance of finding a winner - as a number of positive reviews from respected newspapers confirm.

Finding free shows

Following a much-publicised and hugely acrimonious split in 2006, the majority of free shows are organized into two rival chains - each running around dozen venues. One group, headed up by folk musician and comedian Peter Buckley Hill, operates under the title of "PBH's Free Fringe"; the other goes under the banner of the "Free Festival", and is organized by promoter Laughing Horse. It's hard to say what the schism has meant for the quality of the free offerings, but it's certainly done nothing to slow the growth of the free market - the number of shows has rocketed to hundreds this year.

To find the free shows, good places to start are the Laughing Horse and PBH websites (see "Elsewhere on the web" below), or by looking at their respective entries in the index to the Fringe programme. These aren't the only free shows, but the others aren't quite so easy to find - keep an eye out when browsing the Fringe listings.