Every year, Halifax hosts an annual performing arts festival called the Halifax Fringe Festival. Since 1990, The Fringe Festival is known for its unique, unexpected and interesting performances, with 100% of the proceeds being returned to the artists. According to their website, this year’s festival will boast over 55 productions, equalling over 350 individual performances! When selecting which performances will be a part of the event, the Fringe Festival takes special consideration to indigenous, transgender, POC, disabled, plus size, and neuro-divergent artists, to ensure ultimate equity. The Halifax Fringe Festival is one of many performance festivals brought to life by the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.
How do I participate?
There are many ways that you can participate. The first and most obvious way is to perform. Unfortunately, the application date has already passed for this year... This doesn’t mean that you cannot participate in other ways!
Volunteer
Each year, there are typically volunteering opportunities with the Fringe Festival. If you are interested, you can email volunteers@halifaxfringe.ca! Volunteering opportunities in the past included set up, ticket booth, clean up, and ushers. They are looking to have two volunteer orientation dates on Aug 31 and Sept 1, to be prepared for the Festival Sept 2-12!
Donate
The Canadian Association is a non-profit organization run by a board of volunteers. You can donate to their events by donating online, by mail, or by e-transfer!
Attending
Buy some tickets and attend! There is nothing quite like watching live performances. The festival runs from September 2 - 12th 2021 in various locations all over Halifax! Tickets go on sale Thursday, August 26th, and are presale only this year due to COVID-19! Tickets are sold individually for each performance and range from $2-$15 each! You can view a list of the performances by visiting their website, which has summaries of each performance as well!
What can I expect?
Expect the unexpected! The Fringe Festival prides itself in being accessible, unjuried, and uncensored performances. Performances can be found in over 10 venues across Downtown Halifax and the North End. Their site states that “The notion of artistic excellence is subjective and culturally specific; by creating an open-access platform we elevate work by artists with backgrounds or artistic practices that are not adequately supported by mainstream artistic institutions.” Come with an open mind!
We can’t wait to see what the artists and performers of Halifax bring to the stage this year!