Fringe Gender Gap: F-Bomb Launches Digital FemiFringe Directory

The official Edinburgh Festival Fringe website allows users to filter productions led by artists of colour, disabled creatives, neurodivergent performers, and LGBTQ+ artists. Conspicuously missing from that list is any filter for work led by women and gender minorities.

Scottish feminist outfit F-Bomb Theatre originally launched FemiFringe three years ago to address this deficit, distributing thousands of self-funded print booklets across Edinburgh. This year, the company has taken the project entirely digital. Free forac and artists alike, the searchable database offers genre, date, and venue breakdowns alongside intersectional tags such as working-class, artists of colour, and early-career performers over 40.

The Administrative Void

The decision to shift from paper to a dedicated digital platform highlights ongoing friction between grassroots companies and festival infrastructure. Speaking on behalf of the F-Bomb team, Creative Producer Rachel O’Regan and Associate Producer Staci Shaw outline why independent platforms are stepping into the breach to create specific communities for marginalised artists.

The official EdFringe site lets audiences filter for LGBTQ+, disabled, and neurodivergent-led work. Women and gender minorities are conspicuously absent. Have you asked the Fringe Society why this filter doesn’t exist? If so, what was the excuse?

Rachel: The Fringe Society has been very supportive of FemiFringe. I imagine with the size of the programme there are involved processes to add a new filter to the official website, and it would be great to collaborate with them in the future, adding visibility for FemiFringe in that respect.

Staci: For us, the great thing about FemiFringe is it allows you to be much more specific on intersectionality. You can refine your search to women, trans, queer or non-binary, but also working-class, neurodivergent, artists of colour—for example. FemiFringe is a place for marginalised artists to be seen amongst the mammoth that is the Fringe. What FemiFringe does during the festival season is create a sense of community. It connects people not only with fellow marginalised artists but also audience members looking for specific work or stories to support. Audiences do have a tendency to seek out work by artists who are from the same marginalised communities. I know I do. We want to see ourselves represented. That’s what you can find on FemiFringe.

You handed out thousands of print guides in previous years, largely unfunded and unpaid. Moving online cuts printing costs, but building a database still takes time. Will you be able to sustain the effort indefinitely, or is there a limit?

Rachel: Many, many hours were spent designing the guide each year, as well as raising donations for the print cost. Honestly, building and moderating the database is a breeze by comparison. We’re open to the print guide making a return if it’s adequately supported, but right now being online feels quite sustainable.

Hard Data and Age Boundaries

Moving online has provided concrete metrics. Rachel O’Regan points out that almost half of listed shows are new writing, over 50% are queer-led, 40% neurodivergent-led, and 35% working class-led. The platform also challenges industry norms regarding how “emerging” artists are defined, explicitly creating space for mid-life talent.

You must get pushback from producers trying to bend the rules to get listed. How do you handle that?

Rachel: This hasn’t really happened, thankfully! FemiFringe follows an honour code of sorts, and so far nobody has taken advantage of that.

Staci: Being a producer that had their show on the directory last year I can say that the process is fair. I was producing Colours Run last year which on the surface is a cis-male heavy show—male writer, and two male cast—but the show was being headed up by two women, our director and myself as producer. FemiFringe allowed us as two female creatives not at the immediate forefront of the show to be acknowledged.

Your new search filters include ‘Early-Career over 40′. It’s highly specific. Did that come from direct user demand, or is it a deliberate dig at how the UK theatre sector traditionally defines an ’emerging’ artist?

Staci: I wouldn’t say it’s a dig, it’s more an acknowledgement that there are artists that are emerging in mid-life, and we should celebrate them. There’s a number of talented artists I have had the pleasure of working with over the years who are over the age of 40 and are only at the start of their careers. They are some of the most dedicated people I have worked with. The reality is that it happens more often than people think. We don’t often hear about the folks who pursue it later, or face barriers such as caring responsibilities or low income. Early-career is often synonymous with youth, and the age cap on many initiatives proves that. Often you’re excluded from support if you’re over 25, 30 if you are lucky.

A digital platform gives you hard data on what audiences are actually searching for. What trends have you seen from your side? Does it lend you any extra evidence when approaching funding bodies?

Rachel: Almost half of this year’s FemiFringe shows are new writing—marginalised artists are not just wanting to put on a show at the Fringe, but to tell a story that is uniquely theirs. More than half the shows are queer-led, more than 40% are neurodivergent-led and more than 35% are working class-led. Having that data helps us show not only that these artists are present and making ambitious work, but that there is a clear need for intersectional infrastructure that helps audiences find them.

Industry Utility vs Creative Load

F-Bomb is an active theatre company, having won a Fringe First in 2022 for The Beatles Were A Boyband and staged FLOAT in 2025. Running a city-wide administrative service presents obvious practical demands for a core team working without regular funding.

You know audiences want this tool. But what about the industry? Does it seem that programmers, critics, or scouts are using FemiFringe to decide what they book in August?

Staci: A lot of people I know—fellow theatremakers and industry folk—do use FemiFringe to find shows. I know I have in the past before joining the team this year. I know I have my priorities and draws as a theatremaker but also as an audience member. FemiFringe was how I found out about a lot of new work and companies I didn’t know of before. The Fringe website is a bit overwhelming for me personally. Even with the filters it can be daunting. FemiFringe is an alternative option for people to find what they are looking for. We’re not the only alternative directory or website either. There’s also Fringe of Colour which similarly to us has a community focus. There’s plenty of options, we’re just offering an alternative that is more specific in its focus for women and marginalised genders.

Is the ultimate goal for the Fringe Society to build this filter themselves, effectively putting FemiFringe out of a job? Or do you think an independent, artist-run platform will always be required to do it properly?

Staci: I think alternative platforms will always exist. They always have. We all get attracted to different formats and platforms for different reasons depending on our preferences. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If Fringe incorporates additional filters in the future that’s great!

F-Bomb is an active theatre company. You won a Fringe First in 2022, and you staged FLOAT by Indra Wilson last year. Does the administrative grind of promoting hundreds of other artists compromise the time you can spend making your own theatre?

Rachel: I think it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise, particularly as we have a very small team and no regular funding. But FemiFringe is not separate from our artistic work. It is part of the same wider mission as the shows we make: to create more space, visibility and opportunity for women and people of marginalised genders.

F-Bomb had an extremely busy 2025, with two major projects, FLOAT and MONUMENTAL. There can be immense pressure on artists to be constantly producing, often before the necessary funding or support is in place, and that is not a healthy or sustainable way to work. Our focus is not on churning out productions for the sake of it, but on making sure each project has a robust artistic vision and the right support around it. We do have several projects in the pipeline, including a reprise of MONUMENTAL this September, supported by the Saltire Society.

FemiFringe demonstrates how independent artist networks continue to build their own systems when institutional engines move slowly. What began as an unfunded paper print run three years ago has now evolved into a fully digital resource. Whether official platforms eventually incorporate these filters or leave the work to artist-run databases, F-Bomb’s new site has proven its practical utility. Meanwhile, the company returns to production this autumn with its Saltire Society-backed reprise of MONUMENTAL.

Featured Image: FemiFringe Graphic

To dive into FemiFringe click here: https://femifringe.fbombtheatre.co.uk/