Okay, fine — we know that’s a tagline for Mastercard.
But BBs… your Bitches are tired.
Planning our Edinburgh Fringe run has been exciting, emotional and genuinely thrilling. But it’s also been 70-page-planning-deck, five-Google-Forms, “why is paper so expensive?”-level cream crackered.
Unfortunately for us, printers, landlords, photographers and train companies do not currently accept ambition or audacity as legal tender.
So we’re doing one final Crowdfunder push to help get Bitches in Stitches: The New Grrrl Order to Edinburgh Fringe — and, just as importantly, get it actually seen once we’re there.
This August, Bitches in Stitches: The New Grrrl Order is heading to Edinburgh Fringe for our first-ever run.
That sentence still feels slightly ridiculous to type.
Because five years ago, Bitches in Stitches wasn’t a global comedy collective. It wasn’t even really a community. Deffo not a 90+ performer network across Hong Kong, Manila, Manchester and London. And absolutely not a Fringe show with a trailer / press pack / landing page / Crowdfunder / visibility campaign + several emotionally compromised women quietly Googling “how many A5 flyers can we print if we still want to eat?”
It was supposed to be one night.
In 2021, six women walked into a Hong Kong bar and put on an all-female comedy show because we were tired of being treated like the token slot on lineups — if we were booked at all.
That first show sold out in six hours.
The venue asked us back the next month. Then again the month after that. Then suddenly, we weren’t just producing a gig.
We were building a room. And then it kept growing.
From Hong Kong, BiS expanded to Manila. Then we found kindred spirits doing the exact same thing in Manchester, and merged. Then we came to London. Along the way, we became something bigger than a comedy night. We became a ridiculously enormous group chat where support went way beyond getting stage time. We made Bitches in Stitches shows the place where femme/them comics could experiment, bomb, grow, get notes, get booked, make friends, and stop feeling like they had to fight each other for the one “token woman/NB/queer comic” spot on somebody else’s lineup.
Now, we’re woo-hooing in the streets like your girl gang after a bottomless brunch because for the first time, The New Grrrl Order is bringing comics from across our international network together on one stage.
The show is a full hour of femme/them-forward, no-filter stand-up comedy: fast, filthy, community-powered and dangerously unfiltered.
That doesn’t mean the comedy is soft or the jokes are polite. And it does not mean we all sit in a circle gently applauding each other for having feelings.
It means the room’s built differently. And in it, we’re creating laughter that brings people in instead of pushing them out.
That’s what we’re taking to Edinburgh: not just one show, but the room we built ourselves.
Which brings us to the deeply unsexy part of building a FEMpire: the invoices.
Getting to Fringe isn’t just about being funny enough, organised enough, delulu enough, or willing enough to wave flyers like an Olympic flag-bearer while pedestrians scurry past, avoiding eye contact like you’re peddling the good news of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ.
But what’s the alternative? At the Fringe, being in the programme is not enough.
You have to be seen:
by audiences choosing between thousands of shows
by reviewers whose inboxes are already screaming
by journalists / producers / bookers / industry people… and that one person wandering around Edinburgh at 7:30pm thinking, “I want comedy, but not the shit kind and I’m not above writing a scathing review if £5 doesn’t get me the funniest show at the Fringe.”
That kind of visibility costs money.
It costs money to print flyers and make posters. Even more if you hire a designer (and a director to shoot and cut a trailer).
We’ve already taken on a lot of the seriously unsexy admin that makes people realise your show exists before they’ve already spent their evening budget on an experimental clown show and a £14 jacket potato. But there are still a shitload of line items that can’t be bought with
hopes, dreams, determination and resourcefulness.
They can only be bought with actual money.
Like housing for six people for three weeks in Edinburgh, a city that briefly transforms from “historic cultural capital” into “Airbnb Hunger Games.”
It also costs money to make the show discoverable. And for independent, underrepresented comics, that part matters.
Because the issue isn’t whether femme/them comics are talented enough. We are.
It isn’t whether women, queer, trans, non-binary and othered comics are at Fringe. We are.
It’s whether audiences can find us, whether reviewers know we’re there, whether producers make it into the room. It’s whether this show could live beyond August… if people ever get the chance to discover it.
And because asking for money on the internet already feels like standing under fluorescent lighting in your baggy period panties, we wanted to make the whole thing feel a little less bleak.
So, friends — we’re offering Bonus Thank-Yous for anyone who donates £10–£75 to our Crowdfunder campaign!
Not because we think anyone needs a reward to support femme/them comedy. But because we are grateful, dramatic, and believe even grassroots arts funding should come with a little bit of sparkle and a certificate we made with Canva. 😝
Here’s the deal:
Donate via Crowdfunder.
Then fill in our quick claim form.
We’ll send (via DMs or email) you your bonus thank-you, straight from Edinburgh!
☕ £10 – Coffee Angel
You’ll receive: your name on our digital Wall of FEMpire Fame🧾 £25 – Adopt a Fringe Problem
Spare mics. Panic printing. Tampons. 2am taxis. Emergency Red Bull. Choose a tiny nightmare to spare us from.
You’ll receive: your name on the Wall of FEMpire Fame + a digital adoption certificate for your chosen Fringe problem💅 £40 – FEMpire Feature
You’ll receive: your name on the Wall of FEMpire Fame + a thank-you shoutout on BiS’ Instagram Stories for you, your show, your small business or your creative project💌 £75 – Fringe Dispatch
You’ll receive: your name on the Wall of FEMpire Fame + a backer-only digital postcard from Fringe, featuring one BTS update, one photo and one chaotic confession (it may even be a voice note under 1 minute!)
Fair question.
We love a payoff. We also love transparency. So here’s what your donation helps cover in the real world, where unfortunately vibes are not yet accepted by landlords, printers or Trainline:
- flyers and posters so audiences can actually find us
- press photos and promo assets so journalists / reviewers / industry people have something strong to use
- travel and accommodation for comics coming together across our chapters
- QR foam boards, signage and other promotional materials
- caffeine, emergency Red Bulls, tampons, spare mics, panic printing and other supplies to avoid tiny Fringe nightmares
- the unsexy admin goblins that help a show survive the month of August
Every donation has a job:
£10 helps us get a little more visible.
£25 solves a tiny nightmare.
£40 helps fund the wider campaign.
£75 helps us bring you behind the scenes.
And all of it helps us give The New Grrrl Order a fighting chance to be found.
Alongside our Fringe run, we’re launching Count Us In — a visibility campaign, photocall and community meetup for women, non-binary, queer, trans and othered comics at Fringe.
Because the problem isn’t that we aren’t there. We are.
The problem is that audiences might never find us.
We’ll gather comics with their own flyers, zine-style placards and a hired photographer to create one loud, joyful image of the performers audiences might otherwise miss.
Your donation helps fund the materials, photography and press push behind that campaign too — helping not just BiS, but other underrepresented comics at Fringe get seen.
We’re asking for three things, in order of “how much can your bank account emotionally tolerate today?”
1. Donate, if you can.
Even £10 helps us get a little more visible. It helps us print the flyer, buy the tape, make the foam board sign, pay for the photo, get the comic to the room, or keep someone caffeinated enough to hand out another stack of flyers without dissociating into the cobblestones.
2. Claim your Bonus Thank-You.
After you donate, fill in the claim form so we can add you to the Wall of FEMpire Fame, send your adoption certificate, shout you out, or dispatch something chaotic from Edinburgh.
3. Share the Crowdfunder.
If you can’t donate, sharing genuinely helps. Send it to a friend. Post it in your group chat. Forward it to someone with money, taste, and a suspiciously large tote bag collection. Whisper it into the wind outside a co-working space. We’re not precious.
Because the harsh reality is that grassroots comedy does not grow on vibes alone. It grows when people decide that the rooms they love are worth backing.
It grows when someone buys a ticket, shares a flyer, sends a link, tells a friend, funds a poster, pays for a photo, or helps a comic get seen by someone who would have otherwise walked past.
Bitches in Stitches started because we were tired of waiting to be given the room.
So we built one. Now we’re taking that room to Edinburgh.
And we need your help making sure people can actually find the bloody thing.
So if BiS has ever made you laugh, made you feel seen, made you feel braver, or made you believe comedy can be sharper, safer, stranger and less dominated by lads-lads-lads energy, please support the Crowdfunder.
Donate if you can. Share if you can’t.
Definitely send it to someone rich. 🤪
Fund our FEMpire here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/bis-fringe-2026
Claim your Bonus Thank-You here: https://forms.gle/CmsrpJziJUvZyTWt5
Join Count Us In here: https://countusinfringe.carrd.co/
Book tickets to The New Grrrl Order here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bitches-in-stitches-the-new-grrrl-order
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.