How much does it cost to mount a show on the Fringe? Dreadful question, but art costs money somewhere along the line - even graffiti artists need materials.

The Fringe, even if you're based in Edinburgh (and I have the good fortune to be) comes dashed expensive. Venue hire is one of the main items - the company I work with are paying £2,000+ for a one hour slot in a very good, but by no means high profile venue. If you want to play a main space in a prominent venue expect to pay more, especially if you want to play during the early and mid evening, possibly more if you're late night comedy / cabaret.

That, of course is the start. Finding somewhere to stay will be hard and again, very likely expensive. The population of Edinburgh doubles in August. Bearing in mind there's c. 500,000+ people permanently living in the Edinburgh area, that's an awful lot of people looking for somewhere to stay in August.