New Zealand Fringe Festival | |
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Genre | Arts |
Frequency | Annually |
Location(s) | Wellington, New Zealand |
Inaugurated | 1990 |
Previous event | 20 February 2015 | - 14 March 2015
Next event | 12 February 2016 | - 5 March 2016
Organised by | Creative Capital Arts Trust |
Website | |
www |
The New Zealand Fringe Festival in Wellington, New Zealand is an arts festival which showcases grass-roots art and entertainment. The festival is held annually for three weeks during February/March. The festival includes contemporary work in art forms including audio (podcast), busking, cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, improvisation, music, online, physical theatre, poetry, puppetry, spoken word/story telling, theatre, visual & digital art.
The NZ Fringe is a non-programmed festival, which provides a platform for artists through a series of free forums, media events, and a festival programme, allowing participants to create, develop, and present their own works. The festival was established in 1990 by the then manager of BATS Theatre, 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.
The Creative Capital Arts Trust is an umbrella organisation which was established in 2011 to run 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 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 (website, fringe programme, marketing collateral), practical information, and one-on-one advice. As an non-commissioned, open access festival, the production and presentation costs are the responsibility of the practitioner.
New Zealand Fringe Festival also runs Kakano Funding for new New Zealand works and has annual sponsorship deals to assist touring and local artists.
In January 2014, National Geographic named NZ Fringe Festival one of 10 international ‘Must Do in February Festivals’.
In November 2014 NZ Fringe Festival won the Wellington International Airport Regional Community Award for Arts and Culture.