Edmonton Fringe Theatre

Largest, longest running Fringe in North America. Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2025 - Top 10 Cities: our Festival is their #1 reason why! We are a grass roots, DIY movement that cultivates ongoing collisions between community and art. We are Edmonton-grown and Edmonton’s own. We exist because theatre exists, and what exists here doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. At Fringe Theatre, we cultivate art, celebrate community, put people first, think yes, take risks, thrive on change, honour our past, and push forward. Theatre is an exchange. A living, breathing story shared among people. At Fringe Theatre, we believe in the power of story. Storytelling strengthens communities and crosses divides. It is a starting point, a journey, a celebration. The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is the largest, longest running Fringe Theatre Festival in North America. As an event with international presence, we rank among the top 5 Fringe Festivals in the world alongside Edinburgh, Scotland and Adelaide, Australia. The magic of Fringe lives with the people who built this Festival from the ground up, and who continue to nurture it 40 years later. The vibrant success of the Edmonton Fringe Festival is thanks to the more than 40,000 artists who have bravely taken an artistic risk with us since we exploded onto the scene in 1982. It’s thanks to the more than 800,000 fringers who take creative chances with us every August. It’s thanks to the more than 1,000 volunteers who continue to help build one of North America’s most influential arts movements. But the Festival is just 11 days of activity. We are a home to art 365 days a year. We honour the expanding definition of community and aim to build meaningful relationships with anyone interested in collaboration and artistic growth. The Fringe Theatre Arts Barns is a space for brave conversations and great creative risk. This is where chance encounters grow into meaningful collaborations, where messy first inklings become brilliant realizations. This is a loiter-positive space where you are invited to eat, meet, and create year-round. Fringe Theatre is for you, because fringing is for everyone. We’re happy you’re here, fringer. You belong here.