It’s hard to imagine a time when the beginning of the year wasn’t marked by VAULT Festival – an immersive performance jamboree that takes place over six weeks from the end of January. In just four years it has become a cultural cornerstone for intrepid audiences seeking out some fun in the frugal winter months post Christmas. With shows from just £5 and a restaurant and three bars encouraging people to hang around and explore this atmospheric venue, it’s the perfect pick-me-up. “‘Destination: VAULT,’ is our motto this year,” co-director Tim Wilson says, “- a place where Londoners can let their dreams live a little”.

Set up as a financially more reasonable alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – which regularly bankrupts companies and artists – VAULT aims to encourage a different way of operating a non-funded creative sector. “We hope VAULT can provide a safe space to try - so if things don't go to plan for a show, either creatively or commercially, there's not a landlord standing over them at the end of it demanding payment,” co-Director Mat Burt explains. “We can't guarantee every show will be a runaway sellout success - though good grief do we try to help them get there! But, we can guarantee that if they're not doing well, neither are we. So we're all on the same team. Our goal is for companies to feel that they've gotten the best experience out of it that they can, and we do our best to get better at that each year.”

So while financial risk is minimised, creative risk is encouraged with a safe space created for both success and failure. This enables artists to make bold choices, resulting in a festival where surprise is the watchword and brave work pops up around every corner.

Reflecting the diversity of their audiences, “the statistics always surprise me,” co-Director Andy George says. “Last year our audience's age range was between 2 months and 92 years old! There is something for everyone, no matter what age or background”. Shows range from Squidboy starring award winning mime artist Trygve Wakenshaw, in which an imaginary friend creates their own imaginary friends; The Misfit Analysis, which sees audiences taken through a world of wheelchairs and blow-up dolls in a playful exploration of an autistic mind, written by Cian Binchy (who's other job is being a consultant on ‘Curious Incident of the Dog’); the Queen of Canvey's Diane Chorley who brings her ‘Dianentines Ball’ to VAULT; comedienne Lucie Pohl offers up a host of NYC-inspired characters in comedy ‘Cry Me A Liver’; plus, family friendly events with their specially programmed mini-VAULT line-up.

Run Riot heads into the labyrinth under Waterloo to grab some time with co-Directors Tim, Mat and Andy to find out what makes VAULT, and them, tick.

Honour Bayes: You’re back! Now in your fourth year and larger than ever. It’s been an extraordinarily fast ascension, but a highly deserved one. What are you particularly excited about this year and what specific challenges have you faced?
Tim: I’m so excited about the restaurant and about the amazing food that Britain's Best Baker is creating in there. Mat's always wanted to run a restaurant, and now he is!

Mat: The biggest challenge is always the sheer volume of stuff and trying to make sure each individual show has as much support from us as possible. Busy, but very worth while!

Andy: Last festival, it felt like we had used every inch and minute available to us and if anything we needed to do less. Somehow, this year is even bigger, and even fuller - we just couldn't help ourselves! I'm excited for the international shows we have coming this year - it's the first year we've been able to programme internationally and have shows coming in from Israel, New Zealand, and the US to name a few. The main challenges are always how to maintain the ethos, artistically supportive and affordable nature of the festival as it grows. It's important we maintain these no matter how big the beast becomes!

Honour: Over your tenure at the tunnels what have you learnt about them as spaces for performance? Has it affected the work you’ve seen coming through or that you’ve programmed – is there now a perfect ‘VAULT’ show for example?
Mat: It's an unusual venue, and the best work really uses that as a strength rather than fights against it. The tunnels and arches are built-in atmosphere, and visiting companies get really creative by incorporating site-specific things - like the rumbling of trains, for instance - into the script and feel of their shows. Then again, there are some real surprises too - some companies completely transform the look of the space and that can be mind-blowing.

Andy: For me, each of the tunnels and spaces has its own personality and character (I feel I know them all very well by now!) and I try to design the venues to compliment those raw senses and feelings the spaces emit. On top of that we then programme shows in those spaces to suit both the venue and the space - it takes a lot of effort but is definitely worth it when the pairings work perfectly. There is no perfect VAULT show - but those who embrace it are the ones I enjoy the most!

Honour: In a similar vein who is your ideal audience member?
Tim: Personally, I like the more oblique, unexpected and explosive work - so I hope that people come with that target in mind. I always feel like people should be testing themselves as well as us when they come to VAULT - 'How much fun can I have tonight?'

Mat: It's adventurous people, really... audiences who come because they spot an opportunity to do something different. We're lucky: our audiences are generally really friendly, very giving, and we do our best to make them feel 'part of it'. Just by coming you're supporting so much and helping us keep going... and hopefully having a blast in the process.

Honour: You want to encourage people to dive in and seek out surprises and new experiences with the festival. What's been the most surprising moment for each of you since you started VAULT?
Tim: The most surprising moments of VAULT happen late in the last days of each Festival, when against galactic odds, the three of us murmur our first thoughts about wanting to do it again next year, but bigger, and better, and this, and that...

Mat: People turning up on day one of the first VAULT in 2012 was a real surprise, and a very pleasant one.

Honour: The festival is dedicated to creating a fairer economic model for fringe theatre in London. Have you seen a shift in the landscape since its inception?
Andy: It's hard to tell. But I think the ever growing popularity (with both artists and audience) of the Free Fringe in Edinburgh is a good marker that both the public and the artists don't want to be ripped off anymore. The public want their money to go to the creators of the work and the artists just can't afford the risk. London is blessed with a thriving fringe theatre scene and hosts many wonderful, supportive venues whom we want to continue to work side by side with to achieve the common goal in creating a fairer economic model.

Honour: Give me an example of a typical ‘VAULT’ day in each of your diaries – how do you divvy stuff up?
Mat: We started five years ago with no infrastructure and no real idea what we were doing, so we got very used to mucking in on absolutely everything together. As we've grown and learned more, we've tried to keep our sanity by carving up jobs properly. My typical day involves everything from setting up Box Office stuff, to tinkering with the website, to talking through marketing and show ideas with companies.

Andy: My domain is anything and anyone that steps foot in the venue. Including scheduling, venue infrastructure, technical, health and safety, licensing, staffing, front of house and operations, and running the accounts to name a few areas. We all work on the programming and the public image of the festival as both areas have significant knock on effects on everything else. The best thing about VAULT is there is no 'typical' day - every day is different. The best thing about working with Tim and Mat is that the skill sets we've grown over the years compliment each other well, whilst still allowing us all to maintain a creative mindset and opinion. We all have our crunch times and pinch points, but the other two are always there when they happen!

Honour: This year is the first VAULT Film Festival, talk us through how this has come about and how the films have been chosen.
Mat: Truth be told, a big a part of this has its genesis outside a sandwich shop, in Cannes, at three in the morning! I'd been at the film festival there promoting a great film we were lucky enough to be producers on - Over My Dead Body, which will be screened at VAULT - and bumped into Niger Asije of the New Current. Niger has been a big supporter of VAULT since it started, and we've often talked about doing more with film since our partnership with HAMMER in the first year. Niger's enthusiasm is infectious; we got talking, and in this instance he was willing to take on programming duties while we were swamped with the theatre and performance side of things. He’s done an incredible job. The selection is fantastic, as varied as anything at VAULT. I think it's going to be a great showcase.

Honour: VAULT festival is a huge endeavour with over 150-events this year alone over the space of three months. In a world that thrives on soundbites, sum up what this expansive monolith means for you.
Tim: If Edinburgh is Doctor Jekyll, VAULT is Mr Hyde. I'm not sure I mean this. VAULT is Frankenstein's Monster! I'm not sure I mean that either. What I mean is, it's a beast.

Andy: If I were Elliot Carver from Tomorrow Never Dies - "Tomorrow's Artists, Today".

VAULT 2016
27 January – 6 March 2016
The Vaults
Leake Street
Waterloo
London SE1 7NN
Info and booking: vaultfestival.com