MAKE no mistake about it - you haven't been to the Dublin Theatre Festival if you haven't seen a Fringe show. The programme, launched today at the City Arts

Centre, is bigger, better and brighter than last year's inaugural one, as more people try to get in on a very successful act.

Last year the funding plank was £5,000 from Dublin Corporation. This year, in addition to £5,000 from the same source, there is Arts Council support to the tune of £10,000, Theatre Festival, support of £5000 and sponsorship from, among others: Temple Bar Properties, FM 104, the Evening Herald and the British Council.

Opening on September 30th, a week before the main festival, the Fringe presents a dizzying array of shows in a wide range of venues. It is here that you will see interesting young Irish companies such as Kabosh from the North, who present the camp Torch Song Trilogy. Here too you will find new Irish comedians, such as The Nualas, the 1994 Perrier nominated Owen O'Neill, Kevin Gildea and Michelle Read.

There are some wonderful oddities, such as a production of Athol Fugard's first play since the end of apartheid, Valley Song; the revival of Derek Chapman's Smock Alley company with a show based on the character of Nijinksy; French physical theatre from Les Galapins, and an adaptation of Finnegans Wake by a group from Krakow.

You have been warned. Don't stay off the Fringe if you're not such a vile and inveterate conservative that you couldn't care less what is happening and what is going to happen in Irish theatre, and in fact, couldn't care less if there was no theatre at all. You know you are not that person. Ring 01 6704567, get a brochure and book.