The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) is an international body that promotes and safeguards the ideals and principles of

fringe theatre Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fre ...

in North America.

History

The 1982

Edmonton International Fringe Festival The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is an annual arts festival held every August in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Produced by the Fringe Theatre Adventures (FTA), it is the oldest and largest fringe theatre festival in North America (based on ...

, modelled after the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, was the first successful instance of Fringe theatre in North America. Based on its success, an informal network of other Canadian and American Fringe festivals arose. Concerned about the growth of festivals that might claim the "Fringe" title without being aligned with the original spirit of Fringe Theatre, festival directors from this network founded the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals in 1990. The organization was incorporated as a non-profit in 1994. In 1998, CAFF successfully trademarked the terms "Fringe" and "Fringe Festival" in Canada to ensure that any theatre festival wishing to refer to itself as a "Fringe" would agree to abide by both CAFF's guiding principles and the CAFF mandate.

Principles and Mandate

At the time of its formation, CAFF defined four minimum guiding principles for Fringe Festivals: # Participants will be selected on a non-juried basis, through a first-come, first served process, a lottery, or other method approved by the Association # In order to ensure Criteria One (above), the audiences must have the option to pay a ticket price, 100% of which goes directly to the artists. # Fringe Festival producers have no control over the artistic content of each performance. The artistic freedom of the participants is unrestrained. # Festivals must provide an easily accessible opportunity for all audiences and all artists to participate in Fringe Festivals. The mandate of CAFF is as follows: * To safeguard the integrity of Fringe Festivals as outlined in the four minimum criteria * To recognize that the health of all member Festivals is important to the Circuit and therefore the artists' health as a whole * To encourage communication and cooperation between member Festivals thereby fostering the continuity of our guiding principles

List of member festivals

As of January 2017, CAFF consisted of 33 festivals from across North America. * Storefront Fringe Festival *

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

Fringe *

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 Alberta municipal censuses, 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

Fringe *

FRIGID New York FRIGID New York (formerly the Horse Trade Theater Group) was founded in 1998 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is located at 85 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and The Bowery. The two theaters in the grou ...

Chicago Fringe Festival Chicago Fringe Festival was an annual performing arts festival showcasing traditional and non-traditional performances. CFF aimed to provide a space for artists to produce shows that would not otherwise be seen and a festival that was accessible ...

Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival is a 14-day annual arts festival held during the month of May in Orlando, Florida. The festival includes theater, music, dance, and art. It was one of the first American Fringe Festivals and has no ...

London Fringe Theatre Festival (Ontario) The London Fringe Theatre Festival is a Canadian annual fringe theatre and related arts festival in London, Ontario. It is credited with triggering a resurgence in local playwriting and performance after the University of Western Ontario cancelled ...

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particula ...

Fringe * St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival *

Alberni Valley Alberni Valley is a broad valley located at the head of Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is home to Port Alberni, Sproat Lake and other outlining areas. The term is largely used as a synonym for Greater Port Albern ...

Fringe Festival * Ottawa Fringe Festival * PortFringe * Regina International Fringe Festival *

Toronto Fringe Festival The Toronto Fringe Festival is an annual theatre festival, featuring un-juried plays by unknown or well-known artists, taking place in the theatres of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Several productions originally mounted at the Fringe have later been ...

San Diego International Fringe Festival The San Diego International Fringe Festival is a non-profit fringe theatre festival project of conTACT ARTS, in association with the Actors Alliance of San Diego, designed to help provide a platform for artists while also helping the community as ...

* Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival *

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Fringe Festival * ON THE EDGE fringe festival * Fringe North *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Fringe Festival * Saskatoon Fringe Theatre Festival *

Calgary Fringe Festival The Calgary Fringe Festival is an annual Fringe theatre festival in Calgary, Alberta. History The earliest Fringe-type drama festival in Calgary was the Plan B Festival, held in 2000 at a variety of locations in both Calgary's downtown and the ...

* Fundy Fringe Festival *

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. As of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, it had a population of 99,863, and it is known as "The Harbour City." The city was previously known as the "H ...

Fringe Festival *

Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival The Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, nicknamed "IndyFringe," is a 10-day showcase of traditional and non-traditional theatre, dance, music, improvisation and a wide range of other performance and visual arts, performed and created by local, n ...

Island Fringe Festival The Island Fringe Festival is an independent arts and theatre festival that takes place annually in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The Festival was founded by Sarah Segal-Lazar and Megan Stewart in 2012 with the first festival taking place i ...

* Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival *

Atlantic Fringe Festival The Halifax Fringe Festival, formerly known as the Atlantic Fringe Festival, is held annually in late August and early September in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Since 1991, the festival has been a showcase for non-mainstream theatre. A wide va ...

* San Francisco Fringe Festival *

Vancouver Fringe Festival The Vancouver Fringe Festival is an annual alternative theatre festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada established in 1985. The event is organized and sponsored by the First Vancouver Theatrespace Society, a volunteer not-for-profit ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

International Fringe Festival * Elgin Fringe * Zootown Fringe

Touring Lottery

While individual festivals are mostly programmed independently, CAFF reserves spots in each member festival's lineup for the winners of its annual touring lottery. Winning artists are permitted to enter any of the festivals instead of going through each individual festival's lottery process.

Activities

In 2012, CAFF engaged the Canadian federal government to request a parity negotiation in the treatment of American performers entering Canada and Canadian performers entering the United States.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Theatrical organizations in Canada Festival organizations in North America