Edmonton Fringe Festival unveils 2025 theme: A Fringe Full of Stars
The Edmonton Fringe Festival has unveiled its theme for the 2025 edition of the theatrical free-for-all.
Playing off the notion that the festival is a constellation of artists, volunteers, and audiences who help the event shine, organizers announced Friday the theme for this year is A Fringe Full of Stars.
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'When you Fringe with us, you become part of an ever-expanding constellation. A vast network of dreamers, darers, rule-breakers, razzle-dazzlers, and day-long dance-party starters,' a festival press release reads.
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'At Fringe, you're not just part of the crowd — you're part of the cosmos. A galaxy stitched together by music, by story, by the fearless pulse of play. Every ticket you buy, every show you see, every beer you drink, every story you tell, adds a new spark to our sky.'
Artwork to accompany the theme was created by Yu-Chen (Tseng) Beliveau, who is the Fringe's own graphic designer.
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Festival programs will go on sale July 30, while tickets will be available starting Aug. 6.
The event will feature 223 theatre productions in 40 venues, more than 1,600 artists from Alberta, across Canada and around the world.
As part of Friday's theme launch, the festival also announced the return of the pêhonân Series, an Indigenous-curated and Indigenous-centred performace series led by MJ Belcourt Moses.
There will be a free nightly music series on the ATB stage in McIntyre Park, and the Late Night Cabaret will run at the Granite Curling Club over seven nights.
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Article content After 35 years in that chair, Osborn is perfectly suited for his new role, which sees him organizing disparate bits of information, along with records of key festival events and archival material (press clippings, programs). The history project has been initiated, in part, to prepare for the festival's 50th anniversary in 2031. But Osborn also has immediate goals, such as interviewing Fringe volunteers at this year's event, as well as creating a series of Fringe Heritage Moments. Article content When members of the public phone the Fringe office to purchase tickets or request information for this year's event, they'll hear (while on hold) historical tidbits researched, written and recorded by Osborn. The recordings cover topics such as wildlife sightings during Fringe (skunks like the late-night shows) and famous people who have appeared at the Fringe (including Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall fame and Edmonton's own Nathan Fillion, star of the popular TV series The Rookie). Article content Article content Osborn has enjoyed his role as Fringe Historian so far, but he feels a little sad when he passes his old perch in the hallway of the administration building. He always loved talking to people during the festival. He fantasizes about dragging a chair into the hall to watch longingly as patrons pass by. Article content 'I've always thought of myself as Radar from the TV series M*A*S*H,' says Osborn. 'The cast changes, and I'm still here.' Article content Here are excerpts from an Edmonton International Fringe Festival timeline created by Gerald Osborn to mark highlights of the festival in Edmonton: Article content 1982: Inaugural director Brian Paisley receives $50,000 from Summerfest for A Fringe Theatre Event in Old Strathcona. Inspired by the Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, the first local Fringe offers 200 live performances in five venues. Article content 1984: The first pre-Fringe street dance takes place, featuring up-and-coming singer k.d. lang, who plays to 3,500 people — her largest audience to that date. Article content Article content 1992: At The Fringe Also Rises, artists create site-specific performances utilizing spaces other than the officially-sanctioned Fringe venues, including a production of A Midsummer Night's Ice Dream at the Granite Curling Club. Festival director Judy Lawrence coins the term B.Y.O.V. (Bring Your Own Venue) and a whole new way of fringing is born. Article content 2000: Fringe Theatre Adventures unveils its $8.2-million fundraising plans to gut the 49-year-old Arts Barns and replace it with a 450-patron multipurpose community space, a 250-seat theatre, two rehearsal halls, plus office spaces, classrooms and workshops. Article content 2003: Fringe Theatre Adventures' $8.5-million theatre complex is completed in time to host the Attack of the Killer Fringe. Article content 2020: The 39th Edmonton International Fringe Festival is cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, The Fringe That Never Was launches in August to bring theatre artists, musicians and guest celebrities together for 11 days of online performances.
