Ventnor Fringe 2023 got off to a busy start this week, with sold out shows, dozens of free events, a makers' market, hands-on workshops and the usual madness and mayhem in the most unexpected places.

With more than 100 events dotted across the town, there's never a dull moment when the Fringe is in full flow, and the intermittent rain hasn't stopped play.

Scroll through the photos above

Several comedians came to the Fringe with Work in Progress gigs - testing the water before they launch their new material at Edinburgh Fringe.

Rob Auton is one of Edinburgh Fringe's big names and has appeared there every year since 2012 - and here he was at Ventnor, notes in hand.

He made a great play of literally reading the script to work out what would go down well - luckily there wasn't much crossing out to be done.

He ended on a poignant note, and left his audience with plenty to ponder.

In The Nest marquee, the Tatty Devine jewellery workshops were again sold out, as they are each year.

Participants created their own necklaces under the guidance of the iconic brand's co-founder Rosie Wolfenden, a home-grown Island talent. 

Smaller pop-up venues are fun to discover, and it was among the taxidermy and curiosities inside The Athanor on Pier Street where Steve Tavener and Cat James held one of their Fringe debut shows.

Members of the audience pulled a subject matter out of a hat, which launched Steve into a poetry reading and Cat into the archives to re-live one of her County Press columns. The different takes on the subjects were fascinating, funny, and thought provoking. 

On Tuesday, the much-anticipated Olivia Parkes installation officially opened.
Miss Parkes was a Ventnor woman, known as an eccentric, who lived in a hut on stilts on the beach for several decades.

A fascinating exhibition has been set up in the shelter at La Falaise car park, available to view this week before it moves on to other venues including Quay Arts.

Artists Teresa Grimaldi and Sarah Vardy have looked sensitively at how Miss Parkes' chosen way of life, and this makes the audience think about how 'outsiders' are treated by society.

Just up the coast, at the Big Top at Flowersbrook, another 'eccentric' was being celebrated - the singer Kate Bush.

An Evening Without Kate Bush celebrated all that is weird and wonderful about the icon, from her debut onto the world stage with Wuthering Heights, through her incredible career. 

An energetic and impressive performance from Sarah-Louise Young, even singing Babooshka in Russian, and cartwheeling across the stage, made this show a stand-out Fringe act.

There's much more to see, and Ventnor Fringe is on until Sunday.