 Stephanie Reh, board member of Rochester Fringe Festival, was our speaker tonight. The original Fringe Festival started in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1947, eight theatre groups crashed the newly established and curated Edinburgh International Festival. Uninvited and refused entry, the groups performed anyway on “the fringe” of the Festival, and the Fringe was born. The Edinburgh Fringe is now aptly nicknamed “the largest show on earth.” The 2018 festival saw over 3,500 shows in 317 venues and lasted the entire month of August. Fringe venues run the gamut from proper theatres to a public restroom. Today, there are over 200 fringe festivals worldwide, with 50 in the U.S. and growing. Rochester Fringe Festival started in 2012 and has shown consistent growth over the years. The main venue is called the Spiegeltent and is quite an impressive facility. Fringe Festival rents this tent but is looking to purchase and store one to save on expenses. Overall, there are 28 venues in Rochester with many different types of shows where many are "immersive" - requires crowd participation. Nearly 80,000 people attended last year. There are free events and Paid events but the goal is to keep ticket prices low for mass appeal. Large crowds have attended the major event which has been held in the Parcel 5 area. Shows are usually 1 hour or less so it's easy to sample many different forms of entertainment. The Rochester Fringe is called a "Bifurcated Festival" because a few of the grand-scale events are produced and presented by the Fringe itself but most other events are curated by the venues themselves. Previous hit events include: CIRCUS ORANGE (a Cirque de Soleil type circus), GROUNDED AERIAL, BANDALOOP, and MASSAOKE (mass karaoke - a President Dave favorite I'm sure!). Great presentation - club members are now hoping to have a club social event there next year during the September 10 - 21 festival dates. |
