In just five years, Perth's Fringe Festival has grown rapidly to become the third biggest in the world, attracting crowds of more than 900,000 people for the month-long event this year.

It runs alongside the traditional Perth International Arts Festival and has proved a hit with audiences, by showcasing affordable and often experimental shows.

London-based performer Frisky said offering cheap and fun entertainment had been the key to its success.

"We're a cheap night out and that's what it's about, each show is usually about an hour, rather than the whole full evening that you would give to going to the opera.

"So its fast, cheap — not cheap in hopeful presentation, but it's at an accessible ticket price," she said.

Frisky and Mannish were a headline act at Perth's first Fringe and have attended their fair share of Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.

Mannish said the genre of Fringe acts had appealed to Perth audiences since day one.

"The audiences are hungry, they are really, really into it, they're supportive, they spend the money to come and see us and then they meet us afterwards, they chat to us, it's a lovely vibe, a lovely atmosphere", he said.

Fringe festival offers art for the masses

The festival started as the experimental off-shoot of PIAF, which has just launched its 64th annual festival.

The model is similar to the Edinburgh Fringe, which started in 1947, when a small group of performers turned up to the local international arts festival uninvited and started performing on the fringes of the main event.

More artists joined the movement each year and to this day, the two Scottish festivals still run side by side.

Fringe had just 20 shows when it launched in Perth's cultural precinct in 2011, but this year it had more than 700 acts across 150 venues, attracting thousands of artists from interstate and overseas.

More than 350,000 tickets have been sold this year, raking in more than $9 million in box office sales, far exceeding last year's sales total of $6.4 million.

Fringe World chief executive Marcus Canning said providing art for the masses has proved a hit.

Fringe World Festival street performers at the Pleasure Garden in Perth. ( ABC News: Kathryn Diss )

"Trying to give every single person something that will please them, an entry point into one of the programs and that's been such a focus for us," he said.

"Really trying to attract a lot of people that never really saw themselves going to an arts festival in the past."

Has fringe become too big?

With the rapid growth of Fringe shows on offer and its spread into outlying suburbs such as Fremantle and Mandurah, has Perth's Fringe become too big?

Artists say without a doubt it is harder to sell tickets this year.

"It really has grown to the point where we really have to chase down the audience that we think would enjoy our show," Mannish said.

Famous Sharron welcomes the increased competition for audiences fringe performers are facing. ( ABC News: Claire Moodie )

"While we had a lovely ride to begin with, it's definitely harder, but the audience is there, we just have to find them," he said.

Perth-based stand-up comedian and Fringe performer Famous Sharron agrees.

"It's totes more competitive, but that's good isn't it darls, you just gotta get more match fit," Sharron said.

But Mr Canning does not believe it is too big yet.

"This is a key question we keep asking, when is it too big and when do we need to start putting some things in place to slow down growth?" he said.

"We still feel the festival is at a really vibrant stage of its growth and that the average audiences across the festival have been really strong."

Festival friction over limited space

PIAF and Fringe overlap for 10 days, which had caused friction in the past due to limited space and venues in the city.

Marcus Canning said the two festivals complemented one-another because they offer a different style of art.

"It's the healthy tension of any kind of slightly competitive environment, it brings the best out in people, it grows market, it doesn't diminish market and the results speak for themselves," he said.

PIAF artistic director Wendy Martin agrees.

"They're two very different, but complementary creatures," she said.

"The Fringe and the International Arts Festival sit beautifully side by side, I don't see them as our competitors, I see them as our partners."

Unlike Fringe, which is open to anyone, PIAF is a curated event, which means all shows on offer are chosen by Ms Martin and her team.

The performances tend to be vastly different from those at Fringe and are on average more costly.

But in a bid to get more people to splash out, PIAF is offering lower-priced tickets this year.

"Absolutely, we have shows with ticket prices at the higher end but we have many, many shows on offer this year for $36," she said.

"We have a program, tix for 36 and the idea behind those tickets is to encourage people to approach the festival with a sense of adventure."

PIAF runs until March 6.

See the full report on Australia Wide on ABCTV this weekend.