CAFF TODAY

Since the Edmonton Fringe began back 1982, the Fringe phenomena has spread across Canada and the United States.
There are now 25 members of The Canadian Association of Fringe® Festivals (CAFF) including six members in The United States. (This past year alone we welcomed three new members to the CAFF family).

Canada now enjoys more Fringe Festivals than any other country in the world and each Festival is a leader in the development of theatre artists and audiences in their community. The “Canadian Fringe Model” (where for an application fee the festival provides the artists with a venue, technician, festival associated publicity and 100% of the ticketed admission price) and the North American Fringe Touring Circuit are also considered by many national and international artists to be the most unique of its kind as no other country provides such a network of festivals where this type of support is offered.

For the artists, the Fringe provides an unequalled opportunity to bring to light new and innovative works or rarely staged classics. It is also a forum for local artists to mingle and exchange ideas with members of the national and international theatre community. For many groups the Fringe has brought overnight success with productions being scouted and remounted by numerous established companies such as Mirvish Production, The World Stage Festival, Magnetic North and the High Performance Rodeo. Fringe artists have also gone on to win numerous prestigious awards such as the Chalmers Award and the Governor Generals Award for Theatre.

For the audience, the Fringe is a unique and exciting menagerie of drama, comedy, musical theatre, clown, and multi-media works…a place of discovery and invention. Fringe audiences also have the unique opportunity to interact with Fringe artists and to share their thoughts about the performances while on the festival site. Fringe audiences are also encouraged to spread the word about the great shows they’ve seen and to post their reviews for others to read and consider when planning what shows to see. It is the audiences’ positive word of mouth that has many a time led to productions enjoying sold out runs at Fringe Festivals across North America.

In 2004 alone, CAFF affiliated festivals featured over 1100 independent theatre productions, had a ticketed attendance of more than 350,000 and returned $2,230,000 in box office revenue back to the artists (based on 22 festivals).