Promising the best in theatre, comedy, music, cabaret and spoken word, plus some novel new strands, the Shedinburgh Fringe Festival has announced its return, following its successful 2020 debut. All shows and events will be performed live and streamed globally from two purpose-built sheds at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre and London's Soho Theatre from Tuesday 3 – Monday 30 August, with the full list of what's on coming in July.

This online best of the Fringe festival was conceived last year by producers Francesca Moody and Harriet Bolwell and writer/performer Gary McNair as a response to the uncertain future facing venues and artists. Its objectives are to shout loud about the Fringe's vital role in global culture, celebrate its past successes, provide a platform for Fringe talent, and raise money to support new artists who want to bring their work to the Fringe – all proceeds from ticket sales go into the Shed Load of Future fund.

The inaugural Shedinburgh Fringe Festival was enjoyed all over the world, selling over 4,500 tickets to 25 events, and this year it's expanding – offering a four-strand, jam-packed programme of world-class entertainment. The Shedinburgh Main Programme will bring together shed-based versions of seminal Fringe favourites from the past decade, alongside old, new and unseen work from Fringe stars and comedians. Acknowledging that the Fringe has acted as a launchpad for future stars like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Trevor Noah and Flight of the Conchords, Shedinburgh Newcomers will feature some of the most promising up-and-coming artists today, handpicked in partnership with new co-producers VAULT Creative Arts.

New for this year is the Shedinburgh Originals strand, a series of one-off short pieces and original work created especially for the festival by exciting and high-profile Fringe talent. Another new addition is Shedx, a collection of 10-minute talks from famous faces, renowned writers and key industry stakeholders on the theme of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which have been designed to inspire, educate, reminisce and advocate for change.

The festival's creators have this to say, 'We are thrilled that Shedinburgh is going to be returning this year. Shedinburgh was founded in order to support artists now and in the future. We will continue to use the festival as a vehicle to raise money for Shed Load of Future, our fund which will support the next generation of artists to make it to Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we are hugely grateful to the incredible programme of artists and co-producers VAULT Creative Arts and Popcorn Group and partners Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre and NSDF and DMLK Video and sponsors Mighty Small who are helping to make that a possibility.

We are also delighted to be offering a platform for more emerging talent through our newcomers programme and a space for conversation, reflection and inspiration through Shedx. We're looking forward to sharing our fantastic programme of shed shows across the world this August and celebrating the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and its vital role in global culture once again.'

Tickets will be available on a pay-what-you-can basis. For more information and to sign up to Shedinburgh's newsletter to keep up to date with developments visit: www.shedinburgh.com