Andrew Eaton-Lewis: Already excited by the Fringe brochure, if exhausted just looking at it By Andrew Eaton-Lewis Published on Sunday 3 June 2012 00:00 HOW big can the Edinburgh Festival Fringe continue to get? As Thursday's programme launch confirmed, it's grown by another six per cent this year, to 2,695 shows - and that's only the shows listed in the programme. There will obviously be more shows, particularly on the Free Fringe, which have chosen not to pay the inclusion fee. The Fringe, I imagine, is quite relieved, even if it means yet more admin. In a year in which the Olympics has threatened to steal its thunder, news that the festival had stopped growing would surely not have been reported positively. But does bigger mean better? One detail was perhaps telling - there is slightly less theatre this year. Instead, it seems that the increase can mostly be accounted for by comedy (almost 1,000 shows this year), cabaret, the new spoken word section and, in particular, the Free Fringe, which has, according to its director Peter Buckley Hill, grown by 13 per cent (which represents better value for audiences, if not necessarily better quality shows). Now, the amount of theatre at the Fringe isn't necessarily a measure of the quality of its programme - I have seen plenty of terrible theatre at the Fringe over the years. It may also be that shows which would previously have gone in the theatre section have just found a more suitable home in cabaret or spoken word. Still, the recession was always likely to hit theatre harder than the Fringe's other, cheaper to stage art forms. The Traverse, you can't help noticing, has no major in-house production this year (although it's still a very strong looking programme, with comedian and activist Mark Thomas, and rising talents Kieran Hurley and Rob Drummond joining regulars like Daniel Kitson, Ontroerend Goed, Simon Stephens and David Greig). If it's theatre you want though, check out Summerhall too. The venue, being privately financed, is less vulnerable to cuts in public funding, and looks set to fill the void left by the absence of the Forest Fringe and Remarkable Arts, with a bold, left-field, experimental programme (much bigger than last year's) that has lofty aspirations to build a bridge between the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival. I'm excited already, if exhausted just looking at it all. First glance recommendations: The Intervention by Dave Florez (writer of last year's extraordinary Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still), Sean Hughes (who, like Mark Thomas, is doing a personal show about his dad) and Kristine Levine (a comic endorsed by Doug Stanhope, which is good enough for me).