No sooner was the idea of a London Fringe floated in the press yesterday than the soapboxes were quickly assembled and shouted from. The first article I read on the subject was in The Standard who obviously swallowed the London Fringe press release wholeheartedly, describing the idea of trying to run a large scale festival in London in August as “throwing down the gauntlet” to Edinburgh, an event with a 60 year history and international reputation.
Swiftly followed a Gruniad piece on the subject penned by Veronica Lee which pretty much covered my main concerns - that trying to set up a fringe festival in direct competition to Edinburgh would be a fruitless endeavour because the majority of companies, arts journalists and dedicated fringe theatre goers will have made the 400 mile trip north.








