The New ZealandFringe Festival in Wellington, New Zealand was founded 30 years ago to foster and develop new works, support artists working in any discipline, and encourage collaboration, experimentation, and creative potential. Inspired by the Fringe Festival models in Edinburgh and Adelaide, the New Zealand equivalent has built a solid reputation for diverse and exciting programming featuring innovative, emerging, and original arts productions—everything from theatre, comedy, film, and dance to lectures, visual arts, and community collaborations. The Fringe open-access platform provides unique opportunities for emerging artists to stage new works, a place for established artists to experiment and collaborate, and countless opportunities for audiences to get immersed in it all. The 2020 programme marks the festival's 30th anniversary as a leading showcases of new and cutting edge New Zealand works. The festival is held annually for three weeks during February/March. The festival comprises over 150 unique events and productions and 600+ presentation over three weeks. It includes contemporary work in art forms including audio, busking, cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, improvisation, music, online, physical theatre, poetry, puppetry, spoken word/story telling, theatre, visual & digital art. New Zealand Fringe is produced and managed by the non-profit Creative Capital Arts Trust, with Eric Holowacz as Chief Executive and a team of professional arts managers and seasonal staff.
Programme
New Zealand Fringe is an open access festival, providing various platforms for artists to experiment, present, and show new or refined works. The festival was established in 1990; according to BATS Theatre it was created by the then-manager of BATS, Simon Elson, who initially named it The BATS Fringe Fest. Some NZ Fringe alumni include Flight of the Conchords, Rhys Darby, Strike Percussion, and Footnote Dance.
Governance
The Creative Capital Arts Trust is an umbrella organisation which was established in 2011 to manage New Zealand Fringe Festival and the newly established street festival, CubaDupa. Since 2011, NZ Fringe has grown 188% from 52 shows to 150 in 2016. The non-profit organisation is governed by a voluntary board of five trustees and is led by professional staff Eric Holowacz, Gerry Paul, and Sasha Tilly.
Participation
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is an open access festival. There are no constraints on the content or presentation of the work, and New Zealand Fringe encourages participants to take a creative and artistic risk. Artists pay a one-off registration fee and in turn, the New Zealand Fringe assists the artists by providing festival marketing, practical information, and one-on-one advice. As a non-commissioned, open access festival, the production and presentation costs are the responsibility of the practitioner. Ongoing programming and accessibility efforts support over 1,600 artists and 100,000 audience members each year. Our work keeps a focus on creative identity, cultural wellbeing, the development of artists and audiences, and the exploration of New Zealand’s cultural identity. New Zealand Fringe Festival also runs a Kakano New Works Funding scheme to foster and support new New Zealand productions and has international festival relationships that offer exchange and touring opportunities to New Zealand artists.
