Underground Venues Blog

Bookings are now officially open for Underground Venues at the Buxton Fringe!

We’re using a new system we’ve developed ourselves. It’s designed to be fast and simple, and lets you book tickets for up to ten shows at once.

You don’t need to sign up for an account. You don’t need to print anything or remember any complicated booking references.

And as usual, there are no booking fees for online sales, ever.

But be careful, a lot of our shows sell out on advance, so spread the word and get booking now!

You can book straight from our bumper 2012 Fringe programme, or click here to buy tickets direct.

Underground are looking to grow our team for Fringe 2012!

For three weeks in July, we gather a team of extraordinary young people to turn a few simple rooms into a buzzing, bustling hub of creativity. With our biggest programme ever –  75 acts, 250 performances – we decided it’s time to bring some more people into the team.

We’re looking to recruit at least two new members:

• A technical manager to oversee one of our spaces, liaising with artists, operating shows and overseeing tech rehearsals
• A box office manager to join our front of house team, with considerable responsibility for our public-facing operations

Both roles offer a huge amount of hands-on experience of managing a venue. You’ll join a tight-knit team of young people, all working together to realise something wonderful.

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For those of you who haven’t seen, our 2012 Buxton Fringe programme is now online, in all its glory, at http://2012.underthefringe.com/programme/.

We’ve got a huge programme this year: a veritable banquet of arts and entertainment. From big-name comedians, to fledging first-time live artists; international folk music and local magicians, returning Fringe Favourites, and much much more.

Don’t know where to start? Just take a lucky dip.

Edinburgh Fringe has for decades been accepted as the leading arts festival in Britain – and indeed the largest in the world. Each year, thousands of acts from the UK and abroad head north to expose their shows to an unequalled popular, critical and industry audience.

And for the last few years, a number of smaller Fringes have been growing up to support this cultural migration. There are many other festivals in the early summer months and these are increasingly been used by acts to preview their shows and hone them before August, allowing their work to be seen by an even larger and more diverse audience along the way.

The 2nd largest Fringe in the UK – Brighton – has gained a reputation as a Fringe preview location. Its timing, in May, may be too early for some of the more last-minute acts but a huge number of the popular hits start off here.

Smaller but closer – both in time and space – the Buxton Fringe has become a very popular proving ground for comedians and theatre shows, with Underground Venues and its four performance spaces running 4th-22nd July.

And now the youngest, Oxford Fringe, has sprung up between them all, with its dates of May 30th – June 10th.

Without (it seems) any conscious planning, what has emerged is nothing less than a perfectly formed Fringe Trail. Moving from south to north, spring to summer, and culminating in the world’s greatest arts festival, it represents an ideal mini UK tour. And what’s best, each stop involves not just a theatre or theatres but a whole Fringe festival, involving the whole town and (by ethos) any act that wants to take part.

So, in order to increase the profile of this wonderful opportunity, we wanted to collect the key details together in this post.

1. Brighton Fringe, 5-27 May 2012, brightonfringe.org, @brightonfringe
2. Oxford Fringe, 30 May – 10 June 2012, oxfringe.org, @oxfringe
3. Buxton Fringe, 4 – 22 July 2012, buxtonfringe.org.uk, @buxtonfringe
4. Edinburgh Fringe, 3 – 27 August 2012, edfringe.com, @edfringe

Let us know by posting below if you’ll be attempting the Fringe Trail this year – and how you get on. Or talk about it on Twitter / Facebook

#fringetrail
@underthefringe

Just a quick note to confirm that Underground Venues will be back for its 5th Buxton Fringe this summer. We’ll be running the Paupers Pit and the Barrel Room as spaces from 7th-25th July.
Applications will be open February 3rd 2010. Just head to the main page from then for full info. Applications are officially open until April 10th but we may be able to accept late entries.

To celebrate our new online bookings system, we’re offering a web-only discount for customers who reserve tickets in advance for our shows.

Just enter the discount code earlybird into the discount box on the booking form to save a cool quid from your booking for every two tickets you reserve.

But hurry! This offer is only running for ten days… so browse our programme, check your diary, call your friends and get booking!

Don’t say we never give you anything…

• Full terms & Condtions »

PS. Three weeks exactly until the fringe launch party!

Our full programme for 2009 is now online! To celebrate, we’ve given the old website a complete overhaul so this also marks the launch of the new Underground website.
So why not have a browse around and find out which of your favourites are back – as well as searching out this year’s soon-to-be-uncovered gems.