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Fringe World, formerly Fringe World Festival, is an annual multi-arts
fringe festival 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 ...
held in Perth, Western Australia during the city's summer festival season of January/February. The annual program of events features artists and acts from a range of styles including
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyc ...
,
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or ...
, comedy, music, dance, theatre, film and
visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...
. Fringe World is held prior to and with a two-week crossover to the Perth International Arts Festival. Fringe World and the Perth Festival are separate organisations and events.


History


1983–2011

The Festival Fringe Society of Perth was established in 1983 and was the forerunner to the Fringe World Festival. The Society held an annual Fringe Festival up until 1988 at which time the organisation decided to move the Fringe from summer to spring and to re-brand it as Artrage, an annual festival dedicated to the presentation of alternative independent arts – a format that was followed until the organisation's 25th 'Silver' Festival Anniversary in 2008. Shortly after this time Artrage began consulting with stakeholders and the wider arts community in Perth around the idea of reintroducing a genuine independent "fringe" to the Perth summer. This led to the presentation of a pilot Fringe program in February 2011, staged in the newly purchased De Parel Spiegeltent in the Perth Cultural Centre. The pilot Festival featured 23 events at six venues and there were 12,000 tickets sold.


2012

The 2012 Festival was the first full Fringe World Festival, held from 26 January to 19 February. The Festival presented over 200 events running across 40 traditional and non-traditional venues in Perth.


2013

The 2013 Festival extended one week more than in 2012 and was held from 25 January to 24 February. Ticketed attendance at the 2013 Festival was over 120,000 and the program featured more than 300 events at more than 60 venues. The total free and ticketed attendance was over 215,000 and over $2 million was spent at the box office. The majority of events in the 2011–2013 Fringe World Festivals were held in Northbridge and the Perth CBD, but more specifically at several pop-up performance venues (including De Parel Spiegeltent) in the Perth Cultural Centre.


2014

In 2014 Fringe World revealed that it would be expanding its presence in Northbridge with another site of venues to be held in Russell Square, Perth, which would be transformed into The Pleasure Garden for the Festival's duration. The 2014 Festival was held from 24 January to 23 February and featured 1,788 participating artists, 418 free and ticketed events, 80 venues, free and ticketed attendance of over 370,000 and box office sales of over $3.2million.


2015

The 2015 Fringe World Festival was held from 23 January to 22 February and was billed as '31 Days of Perthect' featuring a program of more than 500 events at over 100 venues throughout the Perth metropolitan area. The 2015 Festival featured The Gold Digger, a new custom-designed pop-up venue in the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia courtyard, that presented a program of Australian and international comedy talent as part of the Fringe Comedy Central program. The Gold Digger was presented by the Perth Theatre Trust as part of a long-term collaboration with Fringe World.


2016

The 2016 Fringe World Festival was held from 22 January to 21 February. A new feature to the Festival was the Fringe World Fairground, which was part of the opening celebrations of the new waterside precinct, Elizabeth Quay. A 1920s fairground on Perth's waterfront called 'Uglieland' was an inspiration for the Fringe World Fairground.


2017

The 2017 Fringe World Festival was held from 20 January to 19 February, during which time the Festival expanded into a new venue at Cathedral Square in Perth, where the Edith Spiegeltent hosted La Soirée.


2019

The 2019 Fringe World Festival took place across 169 venues and performance spaces and was held from 18 January to 17 February 2019. The festival introduced Yagan Square as a new Fringe World hub, Fringe Fridays and Fringe Sundays. The festival generated $12.1 million in box office sales. Total attendance of free and ticketed events was over 850,000 across 5561 performances.


2020

2020 Fringe World was held from 17 January to 16 February 2020. A total of 722 events were held in over 150 venues and performance spaces. The festival introduced Girls School as a new Fringe World hub. The festival generated an economic impact of over $100 million and generated $10.9 million in box office sales, created 2,214 jobs. Total attendance of free and ticketed events was over 829,000 across 6,765 performances.


2021

The 2021 festival was held from 15 January to 14 February 2021. It was the first major fringe performance opportunity in the world for artists during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Fringe World launched an app in place of a printed guide for the 2021 Festival. Due to a COVID-19 lockdown, the Festival closed for a week and subsequently hosted an encore season from 14 February to 28 February 2021. The Festival generated an economic impact of $19.9 million and generated $5.9 million in box office sales. Total attendance across free and ticketed events was over 465,000.


Regional touring

Fringe World has been touring to regional Western Australia since 2012. With support from Fringe World partner Woodside De Parel Spiegeltent has toured to Karratha several times since 2012 to present shows at the Red Earth Arts Festival. Also with support from Woodside, Fringe World has toured artists to the Shinju Matsuri Festival in Broome. The 2016 regional tour was self-funded by Artrage and visited Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Ravensthorpe, Northam and Mullewa.


Venues

Fringe World events are presented at venues in the Perth metropolitan area and further afield in Western Australia. The Festival hubs (clusters of venues) are located in Northbridge at Perth Cultural Centre, The Pleasure Garden at Russell Square, Perth and Liberty Fringe in the old Liberty Theatre on Barrack St. Festival events are also presented in independent venues and programs.


World Fringe Alliance

Fringe World is part of the World Fringe Alliance alongside other key fringe festivals including: *
Adelaide Fringe The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, i ...
*
Brighton Festival Fringe Brighton Fringe is an open-access arts festival held annually in Brighton, England. It is the largest annual arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. The programme of 2018 included 1008 events at over 166 ve ...
*
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 ...
*
New York International Fringe Festival The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across seve ...
*
Hollywood Fringe Festival The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual fringe theatre festival in Hollywood, California. Most indoor venues for the festival are in and around Hollywood Theatre Row, a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Founder Ben Hill s ...
*
Prague Fringe Festival The Prague Fringe Festival is an annual event held every May and June in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a fringe festival, on the model of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh F ...
*
National Arts Festival The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Grahamstown, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers. Th ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fringe World Arts festivals in Australia Festivals in Perth, Western Australia Arts organisations based in Australia Fringe festivals in Australia