IMAGE CAPTION: [A person wearing purple with long black hair looks to the right and down. Image text reads "About Fringe North."]
About Fringe North
Fringe North works to support creation and collaboration between artists and creatives, while building community in strong and meaningful ways. The guiding principles of strengthening and uplifting diversity, inclusivity, equity, and accessibility are at the core of everything that Fringe North does, with priority focus placed on breaking down barriers to the arts, and centering the voices of equity-seeking folks through the artistic process. Fringe North strives to connect artists with audiences, youth with mentors, creatives with community, and to increase access to the arts for all.
Fringe North offers an annual festival that runs each August. Although our primary focus is theatre, the festival has expanded to include a multi-arts experience offering something for everyone.
Each year Fringe North helps new and emerging artists explore their craft through our Artists in Residency Program. This program helps up and coming artists who are new to the Fringe scene prepare and present their projects. We are grateful to have received funding through the Susan Barber Memorial Fund to be able to implement this program as part of our festival in 2021 and bring it back again for the 2022 season.
As part of our annual festivals we have proudly supported Project Nishin and Project Nishin Niizh. These projects, that have taken place in 2020 and 2022, serve to support Indigenous, and other criminalized artists, in a healthy, holistic and unapologetically decolonial process of art creation. We are grateful to Ontario Culture Days for partnering with us to provide funding for Project Nishin Niizh.
Fringe North also offers a podcast series focused on local and Ontario based arts. This podcast is available year round and can be seen on our YouTube channel and also runs on Shaw Spotlight twice a week. Fringe North also offers other arts events such as the Storytellers event that took place in March 2022.
Fringe North is located in Bawaating, the traditional lands of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ and Michif Piyii, territory covered by the 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty as part of the Upper Canada Treaties. We recognize the Covenant Chain of mutual respect, including the Two Row Wampum Belt. We all must honour and respect the rights and sovereignty of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples; They have always been Nations. Fringe North values truth and reconciliation and taking actionable steps to work towards this in tangible ways.
Fringe North offers an annual festival that runs each August. Although our primary focus is theatre, the festival has expanded to include a multi-arts experience offering something for everyone.
Each year Fringe North helps new and emerging artists explore their craft through our Artists in Residency Program. This program helps up and coming artists who are new to the Fringe scene prepare and present their projects. We are grateful to have received funding through the Susan Barber Memorial Fund to be able to implement this program as part of our festival in 2021 and bring it back again for the 2022 season.
As part of our annual festivals we have proudly supported Project Nishin and Project Nishin Niizh. These projects, that have taken place in 2020 and 2022, serve to support Indigenous, and other criminalized artists, in a healthy, holistic and unapologetically decolonial process of art creation. We are grateful to Ontario Culture Days for partnering with us to provide funding for Project Nishin Niizh.
Fringe North also offers a podcast series focused on local and Ontario based arts. This podcast is available year round and can be seen on our YouTube channel and also runs on Shaw Spotlight twice a week. Fringe North also offers other arts events such as the Storytellers event that took place in March 2022.
Fringe North is located in Bawaating, the traditional lands of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ and Michif Piyii, territory covered by the 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty as part of the Upper Canada Treaties. We recognize the Covenant Chain of mutual respect, including the Two Row Wampum Belt. We all must honour and respect the rights and sovereignty of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples; They have always been Nations. Fringe North values truth and reconciliation and taking actionable steps to work towards this in tangible ways.
A Multi-Arts ExperienceIn 2021 Fringe North was unable to have an in-person festival due to the covid 19 pandemic. Instead, we shifted to digital formats. The wonderfully unique array of applications opened our eyes to styles of art that can be included in our festival in new and interesting ways. This encouraged us to expand beyond the typical theatre centric approach seen at most Fringe Festivals. Although theatre is still the heart and soul of Fringe North we are excited to now offer a multi-arts experience. Included in this is our desire to continue to offer digital content each year as part of our festival.
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Affiliations
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Fringe North is a proud member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), whose mission is to unite, support, empower and strengthen member festivals in order to cultivate and foster independent artistic exploration for artists and audiences across North America.
CAFF Website Contact CAFF Fringe North is also a proud member of the World Congress of Fringe Festivals, which is set up to serve the global Fringe community, including festival staff, venues, performers & artists, agents, audiences, suppliers, media, sponsors & supporters, and wider industry professionals. World Fringe Website |
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Fringe History
The Fringe theatre movement started in 1947 in Edinburgh, Scotland – they’re still home to the world’s largest fringe festival! The first Canadian Fringe was held in Edmonton in 1982. Since then, the movement has spread across the continent – the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals currently boasts 30 member festivals across Canada and the United States, and the World Congress of Fringe Festivals boasts 250 festivals worldwide. Fringe North began in 2016 and has since grown to be a staple in the Sault’s summer entertainment scene! Our mission is to provide easily accessible opportunities for all artists and all audiences to participate in. 100% of our box office sales go to participating artists with a maximum ticket price of $12, so performances are affordable and easily accessible. We are a proud member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals and the World Congress of Fringe Festivals. After being forced to digital formats for last year’s festival due to COVID-19, we are so excited to be back and planning both digital and live components for this year’s activities! |
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Fringe Festival Values
All Fringe festivals share a set of common guidelines with the aim of providing an easily accessible opportunity for all audiences and all artists to participate.
All Fringe festivals share a set of common guidelines with the aim of providing an easily accessible opportunity for all audiences and all artists to participate.
- Participants will be selected on a non-juried basis, through a first-come, first-serve process.
- The audience must have the option to pay a ticket price, 100% of which goes directly to the artists.
- Artistic freedom of participants is unrestrained - festival producers never censor the content of each performance.
- Easily accessible opportunities for all artists and audiences to participate in the festival will be provided.
- Fringe Festivals promote and model inclusivity, diversity and multiculturalism, and will endeavor to incorporate them into all aspects of our organizations.
Fringe North Vision & Values
The vision of Fringe North is to support artists and creators, strengthen local arts communities, build community through art, create sustainable, accessible avenues for artistic exploration and experiences for all, and to provide memorable experiences for audiences year after year.
The vision of Fringe North is to support artists and creators, strengthen local arts communities, build community through art, create sustainable, accessible avenues for artistic exploration and experiences for all, and to provide memorable experiences for audiences year after year.
- Fringe North takes pride in fostering the artistic freedom of artists and are censorship-free, while also valuing and upholding safe(r) spaces for everyone.
- Fringe North Festival is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and creating safe(r) spaces for everyone involved in our festival. We recognize the responsibility we have as an artistic platform to promote awareness and learning through a safe space and we acknowledge this is ongoing work.
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Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie is a city located in Northern Ontario with a population of about 80 000 people. We are at the hub of the Great Lakes on the St. Mary’s River, which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron, and are home to the Agawa Canyon Tour Train, the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, the Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site, the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site, Whitefish Island National Historic Site, and the St. Mary’s River Heritage Waterway, among many other attractions. |
