The Nelson Fringe Festival has launched in style for the biggest festival to date.  The Nelson Fringe Festival started in 2014, has grown to 42 shows this year, up from 37 shows last year. The festival will also include 16 workshops and be hosted in two venues, Refinery Artspace and Ghost Light Theatre. 

Around 80 people attended the programme launch at Ghost Light Theatre on Sunday to reveal the line-up.  The launch was attended by sponsors, industry professionals, producers and artists. Laura Irish, Nelson Fringe Festival Artistic Director thanked everyone before the line-up was shown on the screen and the programme announced. Laura comments “I loved that four years in, we are still in keeping with the quirky, inclusive vibe that the festival originated with. As an improv junkie I’m looking forward to the show or workshop by Pauline Calme (Drop the Mask), Katherine Weaver (Monster of the Week), Brendon Bennetts (Friend Request) and Daniel Allan (An Evening with Lord Nelson and Off Book). I'm also looking forward to Jon Bennetts bringing two shows (Pretending Things are a Cock and Fire in the Meth Lab), I could watch him read the phone book. But what makes me the most excited is the growing list of very talented revisiting artists who can't get enough of the Nelson Fringe and have become a part of our Nelson Fringe family, artists like Justin White (The Thinking Person's Idiot), Georgina Sivier and George Fenn (Double Georgie Pie - A Ballet), John Crick (Kauri Jack - All Shook Up), Jennifer O'Sullivan (Create Your Own Code of Conduct), Alexander Sparrow (Enigma), Aimee Smith (Deep South Caesar) and Cam McCleod (Toxic Mas). 

The Festival has kept ticket prices low again this year to make it accessible for everyone to see something.  This year you can pay what you can from $12 to $32 and will also include an early bird price of just $10 per ticket from Eventfinda until March18.

Stu Dalton, Nelson Fringe festival Marketing Manager comments “I’m really enthusiastic about making shows and events accessible to everyone and not having barriers in place. The $10 early bird price ensures this but also means that you can go and see multiple show in the same night. There is also a diverse range of shows.  The 2018 Nelson Fringe Festival has something for everyone including a Bubble Show for kids, Stand-up Comedy, Improv, Circus Acts, Dance and more.”    

Immediately following was the Visual Arts Programme launch.  Participating artists randomly selected the title of one of the Nelson Fringe shows.  Trish Sullivan comments “Artists now have eight weeks to create an artwork based on that title and the Fringe slogan “where edges meet.”  All artworks will be on display. You can visit the Refinery ArtSpace, 3 Halifax Street, to see the Fringe Festival Visual Arts Project Exhibition during box office hours, from 27 April until 6 May. “

The Nelson Fringe Festival is the Top of the South’s only fringe festival! The festival runs annually around the first week of May, this year it will start on April 27 to May 6. The Nelson Fringe Festival is a ten day celebration of fringy theatre awesomeness - with workshops taught during the day and performances by night.

The Nelson Fringe Festival programme will be available to pull out from your Nelson Weekly on Tuesday and at some Nelson businesses.  The full programme, reviews and more information will also be available via the Fringe Festival website and also available via the Nelson App from March 24.