About us

What is Brighton’s Own Free Fringe?

BOFF! is the free alternative to the Brighton Fringe for audiences and artists. We host a range of un-ticketed shows all across Brighton in May providing audiences a range of great entertainment but mostly providing artists a space. We operate as a not-for-profit co-operative, an alliance of performers teaming up to find a safe-haven away from the ‘pay to play’. After a successful first year at The Black Dove BOFF! is coming back bigger and better for 2027.

Established in Brighton in 2026

Off the back of an enjoyable run at PBH’s Free Fringe in Edinburgh we (organisers Zeki, Maeva and Lila) looked into taking a show to Lila’s home-town of Brighton during the festival there. After finding it to be expensive and out of reach, we decided to take a mini-festival to Brighton instead of a single show. In 2026, the wonderful Black Dove in Kemptown gave us the space to host 60 performances of 27 different shows, all for less than the cost of a single show at the official Brighton Fringe. Now after brilliant feedback from artists and audiences BOFF! is back for its second year.

An Off-shoot of PBH’s Free Fringe

BOFF! is an off-shoot of PBH’s Free Fringe. PBH’s Free Fringe is the largest producer of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, started in 1996 by Peter Buckley Hill, it’s the heart of what makes fringe, fringe. We’re now bringing the Free Fringe to Brighton through BOFF! spreading the ethos along with the successful model. You can find out more about PBH’s Free Fringe here https://freefringe.org.uk/.

Our Model

Free for artists, free for audiences. Our model works crucially through no money changing hands. Our venues don’t charge us for a space, but benefit off increased foot-fall at no labour cost to them. We don’t charge artists to perform, making it possible for them to make a profit or at least not a loss (as is the standard at most fringes). So we don’t think it would be fair to charge audiences for a ticket, instead they can choose to make a voluntary donation straight to the artists at the end. A wider range of venues hold events, more artists take shows to the fringe, and audiences can see more for less, everyone benefits! We are of course a not-for-profit organisation and we operate through being as cost-effective as possible.

Last year (2026) it cost the volunteers an approximate £250 to put BOFF together. Most of that money went into printing and designing the brochures, with around £50 going towards tech. We were happy to bear that cost going in and we’ve been surprised by how cheap it’s been, but we think it’s important to be transparent about what the costs are and what they’re going into so BOFF! can sustain itself in years to come.