Around 150 shows at this summer's Edinburgh Fringe have been thrown into confusion by a statement issuesd on Facebook's Comedy Forum on May 21 by Peter Buckley Hill, the founder of the Free Fringe in Edinburgh.

In his statement Buckley Hill, who received the Edinburgh Comedy Award panel prize in 2009 for his work establishing a less-expensive platform for performers, claimed that the rival Freestival organisation did not have permission to put on the gigs they were planning to put on at the Cowgatehead venue. "The slot you think you have is not real."

Buckley Hill went on to state that "We have a confirmation from both the owner and the licensee of Cowgatehead. Freestival’s bookings never had their approval, and these bookings are null and void...Even if you have paid Freestival, even if you have paid to be in the Fringe Programme, you do not have a slot...We, The Free Fringe, are now authorised to book all performance spaces at Cowgatehead. No bookings other than those made by us are valid, and none will be honoured, whatever the circumstances." He also says that bookings at another venue, St John’s, are equally invalid.

Buckley Hill has said that he will "entertain applications" but anyone wanting to play the venue as part of his Free Fringe will have to accept his conditions, which  from you. You will have to accept the Free Fringe Ethos and Conditions, which stipulate that performers should not be an applicant to any other provider of free-admission shows. "This means that you should dissociate from Freestival forthwith."

Buckley's statement denies that this is venue poaching. "No doubt they will call this venue poaching on our part. It is not. They never had the venue for 2015. Nothing has been poached. We, the Free Fringe, were contacted by the licensee and asked to programme Cowgatehead for 2015, as the sole programmers. If you thought otherwise, you have been deceived. We will help to the extent we can, giving weight also to our own unallocated applicants."

Read Freestival's response here.