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Something mighty is happening in Wellington, and it involves thousands of creative people, hundreds of events, and new works across theatre, dance, spoken word, music, and experimental performance. The 2020 New Zealand Fringe Festival programme was announced last week at Te Auaha with a spectacular launch by the Hon. Grant Robertson, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. And as he noted, it is the most diverse cultural expression of Aotearoa ever.

"I’d like to start tonight by acknowledging the artists, the creators, the storytellers, the poets, dreamers, and the midwives of our culture," said chief executive Eric Holowacz. "It’s you I love. You tell us who we are, good and evil. You provoke and challenge us, entice us to respond. You show us fearlessness. What’s more, you make us feel things, connect us to the unknown, immerse us in the comical, the tragic, the metaphysical. You creative lot—you are the engine of our Fringe.

The 28 February to 21 March festival will be held at 40 venues all over Wellington Region and includes every genre possible—theatre, comedy, dance, music, clowning, cabaret, visual art, children’s shows and a bit of the undefined. The 30th edition of Fringe is also the festival’s most ambitious yet, with over 150 unique productions and events from local, national, and international artists.

"It’s exciting and extraordinary and also, there are changes afoot, so who knows what the next 30 years will hold,” said Sasha Tilly, the festival Operations Manager. “Over half of the 2020 programme listings feature practitioners based in Wellington. The rest are a mix of national and international offerings who come to delight audiences, whatever their tastes may be."

Tilly leads a 2020 team that includes Festival Coordinator Rose Jang, Marketing Manager Charlotte Wooster, Events coordinator Phil Loizou, and Volunteer Coordinator Ella Carling. Together with almost 500 artists, producers, and creative people, the 2020 New Zealand Fringe will offer a season filled with so much creative opportunity that audiences will delight in an abundance of artistic riches.

"Once upon a time, thirty years ago actually, there was no New Zealand Fringe. It took inspired people, a nurturing village, then a city, and a nation to make it the incredible festival we know today," said Holowacz, as he helped launch the programme. "After 2,317 shows, hundreds of temporary event venues across the region, and thousands of box office reports, we look to the 2020 Fringe to give us something new and fresh. And it will. Each artist and actor has something to say. Every event or production will become embedded as a small part of our culture.

Tickets and information are now available for each of the 153 unique productions on offer durng the 2020 New Zealand Fringe Festival at www.fringe.co.nz. The printed programme is available at locations across Wellington, and a walk-up box office will be annoucned in January. 

New Zealand Fringe Festival is a programme of Creative Capital Arts Trust, one of Wellington’s leading non-profit cultural organisations. The festival is generously made possible by Wellington City Council, Creative New Zealand, Wellington International Airport, Inject, NV Interactive, Wellington Community Trust, and Victoria University of Wellington. Additional support and encouragement are provided by Garage Project, Havana Coffee Works, Bicycle Junction, Resene, Radio Active, Phantom Billstickers, The Wellington Company, Australian High Commission, Skinny Fizz, Co-liberate, and KPMG.

Get Fringey with your New Year's resolutions, consult the festival programme, and become part of something mighty creative in 2020. Invite a friend or three, and make the 30th anniversary New Zealnad Fringe Festival great, 28 February to 21 March 2020.