The World is Coming to Dunedin This Fringe

The World is Coming to Dunedin This Fringe

An explosion of art hits Dunedin this Fringe, as the festival down at the edge of the world brings the world over to play.

Started in 2000, the Festival has grown every year. The 2018 instalment (March 8-18) will host over 90 events by performers and visual artists hailing from the world over – from Slovenia to South Dunedin, Tanzania to Timaru, and Cripple Creek Colorado to Christchurch. The Festival features a red-hot line-up of comedy, dance, theatre, circus, visual art, poetry, music, and hybrid genre defying artforms: something for everyone.

New Festival Director Gareth McMillan is excited by the quality and quantity of events lining up to be part of the world’s southernmost Fringe. “The joy of an open access Fringe is seeing how the festival becomes a catalyst for creativity. No other event in the lower South Island features such an innovative and diverse programme. We provide the scaffolding, and artists from here and around the world build the edifice upon it. The Fringe that we’re building for 2018 will be simply stunning.”

Dunedin has a reputation as a buzzing creative centre. The Fringe Festival will see the whole city turn into a canvas, with events taking place from a central hub to outlying communities. Traditional theatres, bars, and found spaces will transform into venues for the eleven day festival: from Dunedin based circus piece Elemental - an aerial silks display performed over, around, and inside the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool - to Rocky Rocky Ra Ra Ra in which audiences are bussed to a mystery location to become the performers of songs from musicals Hedwig and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In Dark Dunedin – Heaven Looks On audiences will explore the gothic side of the city via a three episode podcast and audio tour.

Comedy is well-represented with a line-up of comedians from New Zealand and across the world. Festival stalwarts and first-timers will bring fresh new works to the 2018 Fringe: Family Feud’s Dai Henwood will perform at Fringe for the first time with his solo show Rocks and Diamondsat the Fortune Theatre, and festival favourite Bruce Fummey brings Best of the Scottish Comedians to the Emerson’s Festival Club at 20 Princes Street.

“The Emerson’s Festival Club has once again scheduled a fantastic programme of work,” says McMillan. “As well as hosting a buzzing line-up of performers, and live music Thursday to Saturday nights, the club is a great meeting place for artists and audiences to meet and mingle. Located just off the Octagon, the club is a hub at the heart of the city, and the heart of the Fringe experience.”

The Polson Higgs Showcase on March 7th will provide a smorgasbord of what’s on offer with a back-to-back line up of artists of all genres presenting highlights of their work.

The full programme of events for Dunedin Fringe 2018 will be available when the festival programme officially launches, on Wednesday 7 February 2018.

WHAT: DUNEDIN FRINGE FESTIVAL 2018

WHEN: 8 - 18 MARCH 2018

(POLSON HIGGS SHOWCASE:7 MARCH)

WHERE: FRINGE OFFICES, 26 PRINCES STREET DUNEDIN

WEBSITE: WWW.DUNEDINFRINGE.NZ

ENDS

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