13 is a lucky number for ON THE EDGE Fringe this year!

North Bay, ON – ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival is setting the stage for another exciting week of performances and events in North Bay this summer. This year’s festival, the 13th the organization has produced, will run from August 12th – 16th at the Capitol Centre and other downtown locations, kicking things off on August 11th with a special night of presentations at Aanmitaagzi Story Makers’ Big Medicine Studio on Couchie Memorial Drive.

A staple of the North Bay arts scene since 2014, this independent multi-disciplinary arts festival has grown from a small two-day event in a couple of basement locations to a five-day festival that takes over the Capitol Centre with several pop-up venues within the building including the Betty Speers Theatre, the basement, and the Co-Operators Spotlight Lounge upstairs. They regularly occupy the WKP Kennedy Gallery as well, but it is unavailable this year due to renovations. The festival also hosts events and activities in local restaurants and public spaces throughout the downtown area during Fringe Week. This year’s festival includes nine Fringe shows, several Duality presentations (Duality is a multi-disciplinary arts program that takes place at the same time as the festival), and loads of Fringey X-Tras.

As an added bonus, ON THE EDGE Fringe is also partnering with a handful of downtown restaurants for our second annual “Fringe Fries” competition. During the festival, participating restaurants will create their own version of “Fringe Fries” as a special menu item and patrons will be able to vote for their favourite one. The restaurant that receives the most votes for their creation will be declared the winner during the annual Fringe awards ceremony at the end of the festival. The participating restaurants are Cecil’s Brewhouse & Kitchen, Northern Himalayan Café, Lou Dawg’s Southern BBQ, The Moose’s Cookhouse, and The Block Public House.

What is a Fringe Festival?

Fringe festivals have been around since 1947 when a group of eight theatre companies showed up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival and started staging productions in smaller, alternative venues on the fringes of the official festival. They are open access, meaning that the artists are chosen by lottery or on a first come, first served basis instead of being chosen by an Artistic Director or selections committee. In Canada, Fringe Festivals also follow the principles set forth by the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (www.fringefestivals.com), which include returning 100% of the ticket proceeds from every show to the artists (minus any surcharges or applicable taxes), not interfering with the artistic content of the shows, providing easily accessible opportunities for all audiences and artists to participate, and promoting and modeling inclusivity, diversity, and multiculturalism.

What can we expect this year?

For this year’s festival in North Bay, ten artists and companies were drawn by lottery to participate. Half were from the North Bay area, while the rest were provincial, national, and international applicants. After a few changes to the line-up, the festival ended up with a total of nine Fringe shows. The local artists include Tristen Watts; First Action Theatre & Eli Emslie; Sweaty Isekai; Dreamer of the Deep; and Verba in collaboration with Paint the Stage. The companies from away include SouthPaw Scripts (Sundridge, ON), Three Odd Frogs (Toronto, ON), Don Baxter (Winnipeg, MB), and Elsa Couvreur/Woman’s Move (Carouge, Switzerland). The shows encompass a wide variety of genres including theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, music, and spoken word/storytelling. Each Fringe show runs up to 60 minutes long, and seating is limited to fifty patrons per show. Whether you are looking to laugh, cry, or experience the unexpected, ON THE EDGE Fringe guarantees there will be something for everyone to enjoy this year.

The festival also has a lot to offer through its Duality program and Fringey X-Tras this year. Duality is a curated series of performances and arts activities that take place during Fringe week. This year, ON THE EDGE Fringe is proud to present an evening of “First Draft,” a series of works-in-progress presentations by local Indigenous multi-arts company Aanmitaagzi Story Makers and the youth participants of their 2026 Summer Arts Program. Duality also includes a dance performance by award-winning Colombian-Canadian artist Cesar Forero, a mural installation in the Fringe space by local artist Corbin Elliott, a play reading of “The Book Club Play” by Karen Zacarías with Theatre Making North Bay, and a staged reading of local playwright Ian McCormack’s new play “Auger.” The festival is also hosting a grant information session with Holly Cunningham from Creative Industries, a musical theatre workshop with Michelle Jackett, the Artistic Director/Program Coordinator for the Acting for Stage and Screen program at Canadore College, and a pop-up speakers’ corner every day at Good Atlas. And to top it all off, local D&D darlings The Highwaymen will be back for another dice rolling role playing adventure on August 15th at the Shadfly House.

Tickets & Information

Tickets to the Fringe shows are $14 and Festival Passes, which provide access to all Fringe shows, will be available for $110. Admission to the festival’s other activities and events, including Duality & Fringey X-Tras, are free or Pay-What-You-Can. All tickets and passes may be purchased through the Capitol Centre’s box office in-person, over the phone, or through their website (www.capitolcentre.org), and to keep transaction fees low, the festival is encouraging folks to pay with cash or debit if possible.

Information about this year’s festival, including the full schedule of events, can be found on ON THE EDGE Fringe’s website (www.fringenorth.com).

Don’t miss out on the fun this summer! Join us downtown from August 12th – 16th and stay fringey!

ON THE EDGE Fringe acknowledges the generous support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Summer Jobs program, and the Ontario Arts Council for this year’s festival. We would also like to acknowledge the generous support of our local partners and sponsors: the Capitol Centre, the Best Western North Bay Hotel & Conference Centre, The Engraving Shoppe, Good Atlas, Aanmitaagzi Story Makers, Theatre Making North Bay, Creative Industries, Near North Mobile Media Lab, Cecil’s Brewhouse & Kitchen, Northern Himalayan Café, The Block Public House, The Moose’s Cookhouse, Lou Dawg’s Southern BBQ, Gateway City Brewery, The Opera Bakery Cafe, and the Shadfly House.