This investigation compares and contrasts an established theatrical festival (The Edinburgh Fringe Festival) with two relatively new American festivals (The Cincinnati Fringe Festival and The New York City Fringe Festival) to determine the commercial and artistic viability of those particular fringe festivals and any commonality with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Each festival displayed four primary struggles on the ongoing path towards commercial and artistic viability: the involvement and development of locally-developed, internal theatre companies versus the invitation and involvement of external theatrical companies from other cities; the decisions determining if and how productions are selected or filtered for the festivals; the acquisition of suitable theatrical venue space versus the opportunities created by expanding the types and varieties of venue spaces; and the ongoing struggle between the impulse to create groundbreaking artistic works versus the need for economic, commercial success.
