FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 31, 2024
ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival continues to grow after 11 years
North Bay, ON – ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival is gearing up to present another exciting week of shows and events in downtown North Bay. The festival will run from August 14th – 18th at the Capitol Centre and other downtown locations and will include a special performance to kick things off on August 13th.
Now in their 11th year, the festival has grown a lot over the last decade; it started out as a two-day festival in 2014 and now includes four dedicated performance venues in and around the Capitol Centre. It also hosts events and activities in local restaurants and public spaces throughout the downtown area. This year’s festival includes twelve Fringe shows, three presentations as part of their multi-disciplinary Duality program, a dance workshop, a Conspiracy of 3 presentation, and a one-night only special presentation of The Highwaymen, a live Dungeons & Dragons role-playing series that sold out their run at last year’s festival.
The festival is continuing to expand this year with the addition of a new venue, The Warehouse, across the street from the Capitol Centre at 150 McIntyre St. E in the old H.E. Brown building. They are also moving the Fringe Lounge upstairs to the Spotlight Lounge in the Capitol Centre this year and using the Capitol Centre’s Martini Lounge as a venue for Duality and other events.
The most significant development for this year’s Fringe is the centralization of the box office. In previous years, audience members could buy tickets to the Fringe shows and Festival Passes at the Capitol Centre box office or at the doors to the venues. This year, all sales will be handled exclusively by the Capitol Centre, so patrons are encouraged to purchase their passes or tickets in advance to avoid long line-ups. The tickets and passes may be purchased 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.
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.
For the festival in North Bay, a dozen artists and companies were drawn by lottery to participate this year. They come from across Canada, from Vancouver to Montreal, with almost half being from the North Bay area. This year’s artists and companies are Big Business Productions (North Bay, ON), Bird on Stage Productions (North York, ON), Can’t Stand Sitting Productions (Toronto, ON), Dense & Stage (Montreal, QC), Dressing Room Collective (North Bay, ON), Floater Studios (Camrose, AB), Good Pine Productions (North Bay, ON), Jessica Pigeau (Vancouver, BC), Painted Fern Productions (Abbotsford, BC), Paint the Stage (North Bay, ON), Projet Ambidanse (Montreal, QC), and Vague Idea Production (Aurora, ON). The shows encompass a wide variety of genres including theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musical theatre, 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.
The festival has also programmed three artists and companies as part of its Duality program this year. Duality is a curated series of performances and events that takes place during Fringe week. This year, local Indigenous multi-arts company Aanmitaagzi Story Makers will kick off the festival with a performance of ALL MY R(el)ATIONS beside the Dionne Quints Museum on August 13th at 8 pm. John Arthur Sweet, who participated in last year’s Fringe, is back with a new show, Just Between Ourselves, an ongoing text-based happening taking place over three days where the artist will be reading from his diaries from 1987 onward, re-experiencing the texts in real time in front of a live audience. The final Duality offering this year is a two-night presentation of the internationally successful and award-winning show Creepy Boys by So.Glad Arts, an independent queer theatre company founded in 2014. Creepy Boys, performed by S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger, invites the audience to attend the thirteenth birthday party of two very strange twin boys – think the twins from The Shining meets My Super Sweet 16. Through sexy dances, party games and reenacting their own birth, the Creepy Boys ramp up the chaos to the point of a blood sacrifice, all while interrogating the trappings of millennial nostalgia.
Tickets to the Fringe shows are $14 this year and Festival Passes, which provide access to all shows, are available for $120. Admission to the other activities and events is free unless otherwise indicated. The Capitol Centre’s box office is open Monday to Friday from 12 to 4 pm, with extended hours during Fringe week.
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 this amazing and exciting festival this summer! Join us downtown from August 14th – 18th 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, as well as our 2024 festival sponsors TD Canada Trust, Gateway City Brewery, The Proscenium Club, The Engraving Shoppe, and the Capitol Centre for this year’s festival.
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Contact: Kelsey Ruhl – Artistic Director, ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival
Email: kelsey@ontheedgefringe.com
Phone: (705) 358-4825
Website: www.fringenorth.com
Facebook: @fringenorthbay
Instagram: @ontheedegfringe
X: @fringenorth
About ON THE EDGE Fringe:
Dedicated to the dissemination, production, and prosperity of independent arts and artists, the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival is a not-for-profit organization that creates a unique environment where artists can break conventions and express themselves in new and exciting ways while providing an exceptional entertainment experience for their community.
Since 2014, the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival has been a forum for professional and emerging alternative theatre and performance in North Bay, Ontario. Our objective is to provide a diverse cultural and entertainment experience for our community and to promote and support artists from our region and abroad. Every year the festival presents shows ranging from folk/indie music, sketch and stand-up comedy, contemporary dance pieces, and slam poetry to storytelling, multi-disciplinary performance art and more traditional theatre works within North Bay’s Capitol Centre. In addition, the festival hosts pop-up performances, arts installations, and curated exhibitions through the multi-arts incubator, Duality, and produces a curated theatre festival, the Sun Dog Theatre Festival, every winter.