It’s goodbye to the punts, the spires and the crowds of students in bizarre exam-garb – the 2013 Oxford Fringe is over.

Following the cancellation of the orinally planned festival, this year’s Oxford Fringe was an attempt by all the acts and venues intending to take part, to keep the Fringe spirit going in Oxford. With essentially no budget, we split the costs of basic advertising between us, and relied on feet on the ground, word-of-mouth, positive press and social media to spread the word.

Underground Venues were once more running the Old Fire Station’s main theatre space for the duration of the Fringe. Following a successful 2012 we planned to increase our programme by 30%, bringing in both big names and promising newcomers to the 90-seat Arts Centre. Now with a replacement Fringe, hastily put together by its participants, it was uncertain if this gamble would pay off.

However, following the final tally after last night’s final show, we are proud to announce the following:

• Total ticket sales were up on 2012
• Gross box office takings were up
• Average audience per show have increased

All of which is a great credit to the performers and promoters involved in Underground Venues this year, as well as our staff and our wonderful hosts at the Old Fire Station.

More importantly, it bodes very well for the future of the Fringe in Oxford, which we will to continue to support and are keen to see continue to flourish.

Our thanks also to the other venues at the Oxford Fringe: the Oxford Playhouse‘s Burton Taylor Studio, the Ashmolean Museum, Art Jericho, Turl Street Kitchen, Albion Beatnik Bookstore, the Friends Meeting House and East Oxford Community Centre. We couldn’t have done it without you.

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Underground are now recruiting for our season on the 2013 Buxton Fringe.

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. This year’s programme is a fantastic mix of stand-up, theatre, magic, music and improv across three spaces and 19 days.

We’re looking to recruit at least two new members for 2013:

• 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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This year the Oxfringe decided they were not able to go ahead with this year’s Fringe. However, we and the other venues and artists involved were keen not to see this wonderful festival cancelled so have grouped together to run and promote our own Fringe in its place. This is called the Oxford Fringe and features a fantastic range of artists from the across the UK and venues from across Oxford.

You can read all about it at www.oxfordfringe.org – do take a look.

We are glad to say that this initiative is now supported by the Oxfringe itself. We are very pleased to have saved the Oxford Fringe for 2013 and that our own fantastic programme of acts can now go ahead. See www.underthefringe.com/oxford for the full line-up!

If you happen to be in Oxford May 24 – 8 June do come and see us – and long live the Fringe!

We’re pleased to announce that applications are now open for Underground Venues’ last year on the Buxton Fringe.

Our spaces under the Old Hall Hotel are being turned into a spa swimming pool (or something) as part of the Crescent development, so this is your last chance to take part in Buxton Fringe’s biggest and oldest managed venue.

Just head to http://underthefringe.com/performers/ to get going!

It’s the best thing to come to Oxford since someone decided to take their oxen over a shallow part of the river.

Forget the university, forget the dictionary, the collar and the sneaky comma, surely the best thing about Oxford is its open-entry performance arts festival – the Oxford Fringe, now in its seventh year.

The dates this year are 24 May – 9 June and Underground will once more be there running the Old Fire Station as the Fringe’s biggest and busiest venue.

Applications are now open for all shows and types of performance. Simply email oxford@underthefringe.com for a information pack.

We hope to see you all there!

Our dear friend John Beecher passed away on Wednesday morning, 12th December.

John was a major force in making Underground Venues happen and has worked with us every year since 2006. His grace, intelligence and sense of humour were key in making our venue work and he was forever going out of his way to make the experience more enjoyable for performers, audiences and staff alike.

We have many many wonderful memories of John and, judging by the messages we’ve already received, so do the hundreds of people who’ve met or worked with him at Underground over the years. The thoughts of all of us are with his family at this time.

If anyone has memories or messages they would like us to pass on to the family do please contact us on Facebook, this blog or by emailing hello@underthefringe.com We can also pass on details if anyone would like to send a card.

Other ways to honour John’s memory include giving blood, being vegetarian and becoming a socialist (you know, or giving some money to a cancer charity – that’s probably what he would have done).

We are deeply sad to see John go, but glad that we were able to enjoy his kindness and humour – and his contribution to so much of Underground and Three’s Company’s work.

Here’s a photo of John on the box office with a small dog – probably before having to announce a show with a name like “Penetrator” in the Fringe Bar…

We’re pleased to announce that Underground Venues will be returning for our eighth year on the Buxton Fringe in 2013. We will once again be running the Old Hall Hotel spaces and the Arts Centre Studio and Auditorium, with dates this year being 3-22 July 2013.

We will also be returning to run the Old Fire Station in Oxford from 24 May – 8 June, during the ever-popular Oxford Fringe. We hope to see you at both if you can!

However, the sad news is 2013 will be the last year for the Old Hall spaces in Buxton (Paupers Pit and Barrel Room). That’s right, the spaces where we began our venue in 2006, and that gave us our name, will finally be being converted into a spa, or hot tub, or something, as part of the Crescent development next door. It’s a shame to see them go, but a good excuse for a bigger than usual celebration of arts this year.

Information on how to take part in the Buxton and Oxford Fringe will be available from the website from January so do check back then. In the meantime, you can always follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The lights have dimmed, the A-boards packed away and the stage laboriously carried up the hill to storage – it’s the end of Underground Venues’ season at the 2012 Buxton Fringe. And once again, our biggest and best yet. 75 acts from across the globe entertained over 4000 people for 19 days. The Fringe Club was livelier than ever before and we also had our biggest year yet over at the Arts Centre Studio.

But it was quality as well as quantity with Underground Venues acts taking 12 awards at the Buxton Fringe Awards Ceremony, including Best Comedy, Best Production, Best New Writing, Best Actor & Best Actress, Best Dance, Best Event, Best Film and Best Spoken Word. This was our best haul ever (in fact the best by any Buxton Fringe venue ever) and was backed up by a host of great reviews from the Buxton Fringe and Fringe Guru.

This year, Underground was also in Oxford for a fantastic first year on the Oxford Fringe. Everything from stand-up to magic and performance art, with local and international acts, all among the dreaming spires.

Underground will return triumphant for our 8th year of Fringing in 2013. Watch the website and Twitter for the latest updates. Applications will be open from January. We hope to see you then!

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.