Minnesota Fringe Festival facts for kids
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Current Fringe logo
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| Location | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
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| Founded | 1994 |
| Founded by | Bob McFadden |
| Artistic director | Dawn Bentley |
| Selector | Unjuried |
| Type of play(s) | Comedy, drama, dance, musical, something different |
| Festival date | August 4–14, 2022 (varies by year, see here for all past dates) |
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a super fun performing arts event! It happens every summer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Usually, it's during the first two weeks of August.
This festival lasts for eleven days and shows off all kinds of amazing artists. You can see many different types of performances! It's one of many Fringe Festivals across North America. The Minnesota Fringe is special because it's the biggest festival in the U.S. where shows aren't chosen by judges. It's also the third-largest Fringe festival in all of North America!
In 2013, the festival had a huge number of shows – 176! These shows had 895 performances in different places around the city. Over 50,000 tickets were sold during those eleven days. In 2007, the festival faced a challenge when the I-35W bridge collapsed right before it started. This affected how many people could attend.
Fringe shows are usually 60 minutes long or less. Each show performs five times over the eleven days at an official festival location. These locations are very different, from small rooms that hold 55 people to big stages for over 400. They can be black-box theaters, traditional stages, or even stages that stick out into the audience. Some past locations include the Minneapolis Theatre Garage and the University of Minnesota's Rarig Center. Usually, about eleven different shows share one location.
Performing groups that join the Fringe pay a small fee to apply. They also share the money from ticket sales with the festival. Right now, artists get 65 percent of the money from tickets.
The festival is currently run by Dawn Bentley, who became the executive director in 2017. The next festival will take place from August 4 to August 14, 2022. The Minnesota Fringe Festival is also one of the groups that helped start the United States Association of Fringe Festivals (USAFF).
Contents
Discover the Fringe Festival's History
The Minnesota Fringe Festival started because many other "fringe" festivals were popping up in the United States. The first one in the country was the Seattle Fringe Festival in 1991. Then came the Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival and the San Francisco Fringe Festival in 1992 and 1993.
Bob McFadden started the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 1994. It began with a small budget and ran from June 23 to July 2. Shows took place in different theaters around the West Bank area of Minneapolis. Even though it's called "Fringe," it wasn't a smaller part of a bigger theater event. The first festival was put together quickly and didn't have much advertising. Not many people came to its 53 shows, which cost six dollars or less and were under 90 minutes. Still, 4,600 people attended, and shows came from North America, Asia, and Europe!
How the Festival Grew Over Time
The festival grew slowly at first. In 1997, after a year with low attendance, the event moved to the Loring Park neighborhood. That year, 4,300 people attended. After that, Dean Seal took over from Bob McFadden as the festival's leader.
In 1998, the festival started offering special passes so people could see many shows. Attendance jumped to 6,573! The next year, attendance more than doubled. Festival officials said this was because of better advertising and more shows (68 that year). In 2000, the Fringe won a $10,000 grant and grew even more, to 80 shows. The festival started getting sponsors, too. In its early years, shows were chosen by invitation. But by 2000, the festival used a "unjuried first-come, first-served" system. This means shows were chosen by lottery, not by judges.
By 2001, the festival had to turn away groups because so many wanted to perform. The number of shows was limited to 120. The festival also started showing films and visual art as part of something called "Visual Fringe."
New Leadership and Expansion
Dean Seal, the only full-time Fringe employee, left in 2001. Leah Cooper, who had been the board president, took his place. She hired more staff, like a volunteer coordinator and an office manager. The 2002 festival was the first in years to use locations outside of Loring Park, spreading out to the Uptown area. By this time, the Minnesota Fringe was the biggest fringe festival in the United States!
In the following years, the most popular shows at the festival saw more people attending. Many shows sold out completely and were even performed again at other places. However, overall attendance for smaller shows went down. Leah Cooper planned to leave in 2005 but stayed an extra year to help with fundraising. In 2006, the festival started using locations in the West Bank neighborhood again.
Robin Gillette became the executive director for the 2007 festival. On August 1 of that year, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapsed. The festival was supposed to start the very next day, and the bridge connected people to many performance areas. Because of this, attendance was 17% lower than the year before. This was the lowest since 2002.
The 2008 festival had more dance shows and saw more tickets sold. By 2009, the festival set a new record for attendance, with over 46,000 people!
Jeff Larson, who had worked with the Fringe as a technical director, became executive director in 2013. He left the role in 2016.
In April 2020, the festival's executive director, Dawn Bentley, announced that the 2020 festival was canceled. This was due to the coronavirus pandemic. The festival staff had to take time off, and the organization had to give back money to artists. They also expected to lose a lot of income.
What Makes the Minnesota Fringe Special?
Nonjuried Entry: Everyone Gets a Chance!
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is "nonjuried." This means that performers and shows are not chosen by a panel of judges beforehand. Instead, groups who want to perform send in applications. Then, shows are chosen by a lottery system. This lottery system started in 2004, replacing the old "first come, first served" method.
Performance Categories: So Many Choices!
The festival welcomes all kinds of performing artists. You can usually find many types of shows, like:
- Comedy (both scripted and improv)
- Drama
- Dance (classical, modern, and ethnic styles)
- Puppetry
- Musical theater
- Opera
- Shows for or by children and teens
- Storytelling
Like many fringe festivals, the Minnesota Fringe is a great place for new and exciting performances to get started!
Accessibility: Welcoming to All!
The festival tries to make sure everyone can enjoy the shows.
- Every location is accessible for wheelchairs.
- The festival offers shows with ASL (American Sign Language) interpreters for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
- They also have audio-described shows for people who are blind.
"Bring Your Own Venue" (BYOV)
In the past, the Minnesota Fringe had a special option called "Bring Your Own Venue" (BYOV). This allowed groups to perform in places outside the official festival locations. The BYOV option was only for shows that couldn't fit into a normal theater. Past BYOV shows have been held in really cool and unusual places, like:
- A clothing store dressing room
- A swimming pool
- An art gallery
- A coffee shop
In 2006, a record 23 shows used the BYOV option!
The Festival Website: Your Guide to the Fringe!
The Minnesota Fringe Festival Website is active all year. After the festival, anyone who registers on the site can review the shows they saw. People can rate shows from 0 to 5 stars and write a review. Each show gets an overall star rating based on all the reviews. The festival also has photographers who take pictures at shows. These photos are used for the festival's daily slideshow. In 2013, the website received over a million pageviews during the six-week festival period!
Festival Statistics
