It prides itself on being the biggest arts festival in the world, but the “overwhelming whiteness” of Edinburgh festival fringe can be off-putting to potential performers and punters, according to Jessica Brough, the founder of Fringe of Colour.

Brough is campaigning to persuade venues to give free tickets to young local people of colour in an attempt to diversify audiences at the three-week-long festival, resulting in more than 500 free tickets available.

The project began last year, when Brough began compiling a spreadsheet of fringe shows with a cast of 50% or more performers of colour. The festival hosts more than 3,500 shows.

The 25-year-old PhD psychology student explains that it was initially a private project. “I started making a list mainly for myself, then shared it with a friend, then it grew and I decided make it public.”Word spread via the hashtag #fringeofcolour and performers got in touch to add their show.

Brough explains that they then met some performers and got a better sense of the difficulties faced by people of colour who brought shows to the fringe. “As a black person in a very white city [around 8% of Edinburgh’s population is non-white], I already knew how isolating it could be, but I found it very much intensified in August. Performers spoke of being stared at, refused entry into their own venues and having little support in promoting shows.”

At last year’s fringe, a venue had to apologise to an actor who accused security staff of racial profiling. Layton Williams was asked to leave Assembly festival after apparently being confused with someone who had jumped the fence weeks before. Artist Selina Thompson has described her experiences of the fringe as “looking out into a white audience, and feeling horribly, horrifically alone, feeling like doing the show is going into battle”.

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Inspired by the Black Ticket Project, a scheme founded by Tobi Kyeremateng that provides young black people with free tickets to theatre shows, Brough decided to team up with seven venues including Assembly, Gilded Balloon and Underbelly, as well as youth clubs and organisations such as Intercultural Youth Scotland and the Glasgow Women’s Library.

People of colour aged 25 or younger can apply for tickets to see shows such as Sophie Duker: Venus, FOC It Up: The Femmes of Colour Comedy Club and Modern Maori Quartet: Garage Party.

“I want to create the sense that there’s a community that’s willing to support you,” says Brough, adding there is a sense of excitement from the performers involved. “The desire to have people in your audience that look like you or are representative of what you’re doing is something that most feel really strongly about.”

That sentiment is shared by Sophie Duker, a 29-year-old comedian whose debut show, Venus, explores the fetishisation of black women. “Edinburgh is amazing, but it’s such a specific audience. Knowing there will be young people of colour at some of the shows is such a gift,” she said. “The presence of just one person of colour, particularly when you’re talking about race, completely changes the dynamics of the room.”

What next for Fringe of Colour? “I’d love to see Edinburgh fringe giving spaces to voices that don’t normally get seen or heard … without them having to deal with the extra bullshit.”

A spokesperson for the festival says that diversity and inclusion is one of the key strands of this year’s Fringe Central programme. In an effort to increase diversity in audience participation, they work with organisations such as Sikh Sanjog, an organisation for Sikh women, and SCOREscotland, whose work is serving the minority ethnic communities in the west Edinburgh.