Pulling out all the stops at this year’s Buxton Fringe!
Buxton Fringe is welcoming a new-found confidence from its entrants with around 190 exciting events featured in this year’s bumper printed programme.
Comedy and Music are much bigger categories than last year but Theatre also makes up a substantial part of the programme and there are entries for every genre including Spoken Word, Visual Arts, Dance, Children’s Events, Film, Street Theatre and more with many events that are free.
The free 56-page programme will be available from the beginning of June in Buxton and beyond. An open-to-all Programme Party at The Green Man Gallery on Saturday June 3rd from 7-9pm will celebrate its publication with food and drink and extracts from comedians and others performing at the Fringe.
The Fringe itself runs from July 5th to 23rd in parallel with Buxton International Festival. All three managed venues are taking part: The Green Man Gallery, the Rotunda (now with an additional on-site venue) and Underground at the Clubhouse and the Arts Centre Studio. Other venues include the United Reformed Church, Buxton’s magnificent Crescent, unusual locations such as Poole’s Cavern and, out of town, High Peak Bookstore and Eyam Parish Church.
Not only have more entrants come forward than last year but many of them are pushing the boat out by offering more than one show or creating events with bigger casts, multimedia components or exciting combinations of different art forms. Entrants come from all over the UK and beyond including Bavaria, and via an online theatre performance, Toronto.
Comedy and Music are particularly big categories this year. Eagerly awaited acts at Underground include two shows from award-winner Nathan Cassidy, Aidan Goatley with his Edinburgh Fringe classic 10 Films With My Dad, psychiatrist and award-winning comedian Benji Waterstones promising the secret to happiness and Rosalie Minnitt mashing up Bridgerton, Gen-Z and Jane Austen for her show Clementine. Meanwhile there are mini-daleks at the Green Man thanks to alternative comic Grant Curnow and an Edinburgh preview from TV favourite and Ingenious Fool, Juliette Burton at the Rotunda.
A packed music schedule includes foot-tapping tangos and more from Miles2 String Duo, powerhouse vocalist Annie Duggan, Ukrainian soprano Anastasia Trubaieva, two classical concerts from the Keld Ensemble, an all-Italian programme from Mr Simpson’s Little Consort, a production of Peter and the Wolf with Sheffield Music Academy, bewitching singer Lili la Scala, large-scale choirs, orchestras and more.
Theatre productions include Oscar Wilde-inspired musical The Canterville Ghost at the United Reformed Church, three five-star solo performances from Grist to the Mill at the Rotunda, a multimedia exploration of bisexuality with The Off-Off-Off Broadway Company, a story-telling double bill from Fringe First Winner Joe Sellman-Leava (Fanboy) and Dylan Howells, the return of award-winning Belfast company Spanner in the Works, powerful new drama Lost and Found from the writer of The Riot Act at The Green Man Gallery, and a raft of other treats including intense one-person shows and electrifying youth theatre.
This is just a small taste of a wealth of entertainment also featuring a bigger than usual Children’s Events section, lots of community-friendly Dance, a packed Visual Arts programme including large-scale shows, 3D art and mixed media, a bumper selection of Spoken Word performances, street theatre, film, magic and even an entire mini-festival going on in nearby Chelmorton.
Full listings are available on www.buxtonfringe.org.uk and on the free to download Buxton Fringe App. During the Fringe, the Fringe Information Desk, now in the Pavilion Gardens Conservatory near the restaurant, will be open every day from 10am-5pm.
The Fringe will also offer its traditional free showcase, Fringe Sunday, at the Pavilion Gardens on July 9th, as well as a new event, Fringe on Friday at the Bandstand on July 7th and 14th. Free events across the Fringe are listed here: https://buxtonfringe.org.uk/descriptionsFree2023.html
Fringe chair Stephen Walker says: “Now that Covid is hopefully in our rear view mirror, entrants are approaching this year's Fringe with confidence and we are delighted by the ambition on display, whether that is working with bigger casts, incorporating multimedia technology or simply trying something new. We're excited to discover what the performers and artists have in store for us.”