The Montreal World Fringe Conference

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Montreal for the World Fringe Congress. There’s nothing like a conference hall of 120 passionate festival organizers from around the world to get you fired up about our shared Fringe mission. This international convergence of Fringe Festivals taught me a great deal, particularly about the collective power of the network of over 250 Fringe Festivals internationally and Victoria’s role within it.

A global Fringe movement

Nearly 70 years ago, a group of eight artists were denied a spot in the Edinburgh Festival. They decided that this wouldn’t stop them from having a voice and staged their own performance in makeshift venues on the ‘fringe’ of the festival. These disenfranchised artists railing against the establishment struck a chord with their local community and signalled the beginnings of what has since become a global movement. From its anarchic inception, this powerful, transformative idea has manifested itself in many different forms in over 250 cities across the world. To me, this is staggering the scale this global community has reached – over 19 million people see approximately 170,000 artists perform at Fringe Festivals each year. But perhaps even more fascinating is that regardless of the city, the artists, the audiences, this idea of ‘Fringe’ has kept its innately Do-It-Yourself and independent roots.

A uniquely Canadian pastime

It became clear listening to other Fringes in Europe talk about challenges faced with artists touring that the North American Fringe tour is unique and incredibly special. The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals works together to link up dates so artists can tour Fringes right across the country from Montreal to Vancouver. This not only helps emerging and established artists but elevates Fringing to a national pastime that can be enjoyed in whatever city you happen to find yourself in.

I Fringe, You Fringe, We all Fringe

We all Fringe in different ways in different places – the big daddy Fringe in Edinburgh with nearly three thousand shows is quite a different proposition to the eight shows at the little Prince Edward Island Fringe on the other side of Canada. Hearing all the different voices from cities around the world describe at the conference how their city had shaped their Fringe was inspiring. As Davide at the Italian ‘Roma’ Fringe in Italy said, “the Fringe must fit the mask of the city”. It also made me realize that regardless of whether you are seeing a show at the outdoor Roma Fringe, chatting to a fellow audience member in a Victoria Fringe lineup or sharing a beer with artists at the Adelaide Fringe’s garden of unearthly delights, this experience that we all share, commonly known as ‘Fringing’, retains the same underlying ideals of accessible theatre for everyone and creating a platform for independent artists to self-produce their work.

BE BRAVE

When this idea (which Intrepid Theatre uses as its catchphrase) came up in a group discussion about planning for future festivals, I knew I was in the right place. In a panel discussion, San Fran organiser Christina Aguelllo said, “Without risk, there is no art”. In each corner of the globe, Fringe Festivals are constantly evolving and in their own way pushing boundaries to bring artists and audiences together for unique experiences. As audience members, we take a chance every time we see a show by an artist we aren’t familiar with, and look forward to the surprises and excitement that come with artists bravely creating shows taking artistic leaps of faith. Basic Training creator Kahlil Ashanti remarked in the conference’s keynote speech, “there are so few places where you can take a risk in the [entertainment] industry”, but for him the Fringe is a space where he can safely test out new work in front of an audience and strive for artistic innovation.

Challenges

One commonality between all the Fringes is that they fill a need in their communities and there are always challenges that come with this that are unique to each city. In Sydney, Australia there are no small-scale venues of 400 seats and under that independent theatre creators can rent (much like Victoria in the 1990s). The Fringe there provides a home and a platform for a independent work to thrive. In Edinburgh the population more than doubles during the festival that is attended by 4 million people and they struggle to find affordable accommodation for visiting artists. In South Africa, there are power outages during this festival which frequently interrupt performances.

Elevate the local to the global

This catchphrase from by the infinitely quotable Adam J. K. Potrykus from Stockholm Fringe became the unofficial catch-cry of the conference. Fringe is a worldwide movement, but on a micro level it’s also a family made up of connections between artists, audiences and communities. Within the spontaneous, unexpected, inspiring creativity of the Victoria Fringe (which is the second oldest Fringe Fest in Canada) is an idea which is echoed across the world. This is something we in Victoria should all be proud of.

-Sammie Gough
Producer