The statistics are impressive: 147 shows at 27 different venues, spread out over nearly two weeks. That’s the size of this year’s Oxfringe, Oxford’s very own fringe festival.

It’s truly an example of the proverb “great oaks from little acorns grow”, because the burgeoning festival came about as the result of a chance meeting between organisers Sarah Jones and Heather Dunmore.

“We first met through doing plays together at the Burton Taylor Studio,” Sarah explained. “Then some time later we happened to bump into each other outside the Playhouse. When I was directing at the Burton Taylor, we had talked about how much we’d both loved the Edinburgh Fringe, and how it was about time Oxford had its own fringe. So at that chance meeting the idea was born that we should do it.”

The portents were good — Sarah and Heather had already weathered one crisis together at the Burton Taylor.

“One of the plays was about a teapot,” Heather laughed. “About ten minutes before the show I managed to drop the teapot itself. It was the whole central focus of the play. The director’s face was a picture. We had to scrabble about trying to find another one.”

A strong sense of humour plainly carried Sarah and Heather through that incident, and no doubt helped to sustain them through the first Oxfringe last year, which they produced with “enormous help” from co-organiser Andrew Chapman — both are keen to stress the support they receive from friends, venues wanting to stage Oxfringe events, and sponsors such as Wychwood Brewery.

As a result, Oxfringe has been able to expand considerably.

“This year’s festival is about three times the scale of what we did last year. There’s significantly more comedy this time: last year we only had a couple of nights.

“There’s masses and masses of literature, because there’s lots of writing talent in this area. And we’ve got three really good drama venues this year.”

Add to that many varieties of music, and Oxfringe needs to be a triumph of good organisation.

Truly the devil is in the detail, as Heather remembered from one incident last year.

“We had a near-miss disaster with a speaker who needed an overhead projector. He’d brought his own laptop, and inevitably it was a Macintosh. He had the right widget for it, but it wouldn’t fit into the projector. He nearly walked out saying, ‘I’ve had enough of this’. But, fair dues to him, he stuck it out, and eventually a young techno-genius managed to get the hook-up to work. It was quite a relief.”

But how do Sarah and Heather go about finding acts and performers in the first place? “We have a website,” Sarah explained. “People register there, to let us know that they are interested in putting on a show. Then we do some block booking with the venues, and do some dating agency-type mix and matching, until everybody’s happy.”

But if you’re booking blind on the web, how do you know if the acts are any good? “We don’t,” Heather laughed. “That’s one of the lessons of a fringe. The experience can be very interesting at times. You can go to something that you think might be mediocre, and be really surprised, and say, ‘that’s blown me away, it was wonderful’.

“It can work the other way round too, of course, but that’s the essence of a fringe: you stumble upon some really unusual, innovative shows, that you perhaps wouldn’t have ventured into otherwise.”

Oxfringe is especially keen to provide opportunities for young, local talent. Singers like Adam Barnes, for instance, who performs under the name Motion in Colour.

A review posted on his website proclaims: “At the age of 16, Barnes seems to be the finished product,” while Sarah Jones reckons he could be “the next Radiohead”.

In person, Adam comes over as distinctly level-headed and modest.

“I’m not sure about Radiohead, but the next big thing out of Oxford would be a great thing to be. Singing is something I’ve done since an early age: I’ve always been one of those kids that sings along with the radio.

“I’m from an engineering family, so we don’t where the singing comes from. But right from the moment I picked up a guitar, and started writing my own songs, I wanted to become a musician.

“My first public performance was at a youth club in Wantage called Sweatbox. It was to an audience of about 20 kids of my own age, and it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. But I came off stage just wanting to do it again.”

As Oxfringe 2009 gets under way, “Edinburgh watch out” is the message from Sarah Jones and Heather Dunmore.

“Oxford and Oxfordshire have got a huge amount of cultural talent. We should be telling the world that we’ve got lots to see.”

lOxfringe continues until Monday, April 13. Full programme and tickets at www.oxfringe.com/tickets