There is a David and Goliath battle that takes place on the streets of Adelaide every year during the Fringe festival — the battle between smaller and bigger venues to sell tickets.
Despite sluggish ticket sales for her comedy and variety shows, producer Annie Schofield said she would not have it any other way.
"I was basically put on this earth to do this wild show and so I bear the brunt of it," she said.
"Sleepless nights are fine as long as I can be doing this."
Ms Schofield's shows are being performed at a bar called My Lover Cindi in Flinders Street, in Adelaide's CBD but outside the East End.
She believes much of the struggle to sell tickets is due to the shadow that is cast over the month-long event by the two huge entertainment precincts in the East End — The Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony.
"I think it takes that little bit extra push just to get people to sort of explore venues that aren't in that hub," she said.
Since its inception 21 years ago, the Garden of Unearthly Delights has sold millions of tickets.
Venue co-founder Michelle Buxton said performers often clamoured to get into the fully curated program.
"We can't fit them all in, obviously, because this is as big as we can go," she said.
"I think probably about 40 per cent of the total box office for the Fringe would come through the Garden.
"We have a lot of shows and a lot of venues on this site."
Local former music promoter Daniel Michael saw the potential of Fringe hubs in 2010.
He set up a food and wine festival that later transitioned into Gluttony and is located across the road from the Garden.
Its dominance of the market is starting to rival that of the Garden.
"I think we're somewhere around the 30 per cent mark — 25 to 30 per cent, something like that," he said.
So far this year, 221,000 tickets for Adelaide Fringe shows have been sold out of a goal of 1 million sales — up 12 per cent compared with the last pre-COVID festival in 2020.
In 2022, 728,000 tickets were sold, following 633,000 in 2021.
Gluttony will have 160 shows this year, with many international artists touring again now the borders are fully reopened post-COVID.
"I expect one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Fringe year ever," Mr Michael said.
The Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony's market dominance is a barrier other parts of the city are battling to breach.
Struggle for smaller venues
Veteran arts administrator Anne Wiberg runs The Lab in Light Square, a Fringe venue that is back for its second year but has only sold about 20 per cent of its tickets so far.
"A lot of the general public actually believe that once they've been to the Garden or Gluttony, they've been to the Fringe," Ms Wiberg said.
The West End might be where the Fringe first began, but punters are pulled to the east.
"We love being here, this is absolutely our home," Ms Wiberg said.
"We want to stay in the West End.
"But the challenge is to try and compete with the other hubs that are happening in the CBD and that's a real struggle."
She said in addition to battling with larger hubs, an improvement in the COVID-19 situation had brought created an over-saturation side-effect.
"There's now this over-saturation of having everybody wanting to come and do shows again," she said.
"That's a struggle for artists trying to compete with thousands of other artists."
It is a battlefield that is a new one for the Fringe debut of the musical New Blood, the brainchild of an established troupe from Byron Bay in New South Wales.
For performer Melia Naughton the secret to unlocking audiences from afar is tough.
"That's part of the hustle, part of the focus, we've engaged a publicist, we've spread the word far and wide," she said.
"We're using social media, which obviously is a great platform to share New Blood."
Still more growth to come for Fringe
Despite an overwhelmed Fringe market, Gluttony creator Daniel Michael does not think the Adelaide-based festival is getting too big.
"I think anything can be too big, but are we at that point now?" he asked.
"I mean if you were to ask local businesses or SATC (the South Australian Tourism Commission), I don't think they would think we're too big, when all the hotels are full for the entire month."
Mr Michael also pointed out that the biggest fringe of them all, in Edinburgh in Scotland, was an arts event three times larger in a city half the size of Adelaide.
The Adelaide Fringe started yesterday and runs until March 19.
