Dublin Fringe Festival

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The Dublin Fringe Festival is one of the world’s largest curated fringe festivals. It has become one of the leading festivals in Europe, as well as being Ireland’s fastest growing festival to promote up-and-coming artists. The festival is open to both Irish and international participants. The festival started in 1995 and is now a 16-day festival, annually held in September and is dedicated to new and emerging artists. The Dublin Fringe offers live entertainment as well as performance opportunities in dance, theatre, live art, visual art, and music. The festival allows artists to develop and present their work by submitting their application which is subsequently reviewed by the programme manager. To attract aspiring (and inspiring) artists, the fringe offers workshops throughout the festival to teach a wide variety of skills such as tassel swirling, hip hop, tai chi, and others to aid in exploring what’s new in the arts. The festival is chock-full of talented and inspirational artists all coming together to stimulate emotion, laughter, insight, and whip up the crowds into a frenzy, making the festival a truly an unforgettable experience.

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[edit] Venues

Each performance takes place in a venue which is deemed most suitable to the show. This can range from a number of cafes and theatres, as well as less traditional venues such as the Liffey Boardwalk or on a Dublin bus. The Spiegeltent, which is traditionally a major part of the festival, offers 16 nights of unashamed, unabashed, unadulterated sound and vision. Previously located in Georges Dock, the Dublin Fringe Festival and Spiegeltent have attracted numerous successful shows such as the European phenomenon La Clique. The Spiegeltent shows are noted for their risk-taking, daring and musically adventurous forays into twenty-first century entertainment.

[edit] History

Originating in 1995, in association with the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Dublin Fringe Festival, known as “the fringe” of the theatre festival was created to promote the work of smaller theatre company productions. The Dublin Fringe Festival’s current director Wolfgang Hoffman joined the team in 2005 and has overseen the severing of ties with the Dublin Theatre Festival. The Dublin Fringe Festival’s first year as an independent festival was in 2006. Notable successes of past Fringe Festivals include Conor McPherson, Mark O’Rowe, and Enda Walsh.

[edit] What’s to come

In 2008, 118 shows in over 40 venues and 18 Spiegeltent shows are planned. In the past, theatre dominated the fringe line-up, with dance coming in at a near second. In 2007 viewers were treated to a radical Stormont musical, bovine bone installations, freaked-up fire-shows, lunatic clowns, crazy nuns and Buddhist monks plus the biggest sell-out shows from Edinburgh, setting the stage for an even more adventurous programme in 2008.

[edit] Previous productions at the Dublin Fringe

  • Waiting for Ikea, one of the many Dublin Fringe’s sell-out shows of 2007, tells the tale of two best friends who use humour to rediscover their past as well as explore what possibilities the future holds. “Everyone loves to laugh, and the duo are a bang on the funny bone.” (The Irish Times)
  • La Clique, a “cabaret mix of risqué song, acrobatics, contortion and burlesque comedy that included an orifice-based, knickers-dropping musical stint.” (Irish Mail Sept 07)

“Universally acclaimed and much-traveled...sure to reach a wide audience and, as such, does not make for a bad emissary for what the fringe is all about.” (Irish Examiner Sept 07) “La Clique, the worldwide-sell-out show, will be the highlight of this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. Get ready to pimp your nights with this phenomenal show, coming to Ireland for the first time.” (In Dublin Sept 07)

  • Particularly in the Heartland raises the question “Can we fall in love with America again?” “The ensemble exhibit great physical skill, imaginative use of props and improvisation in the various games played.” (Irish Theatre Magazine Online)

“A surreal, witty and politically provocative show...” (The Event Guide Sept 07)

  • Incarnat was described by Dublin Fringe Festival Director Wolfgang Hoffman as “the most disturbingly moving reflection on human pain and suffering that I have ever seen.”

“One of the festivals trumpeted international shows that left an impression.” (Irish Examiner Sept 07)

  • Kuddelmuddel, which took place inside the artist’s flat, gave a real-life setting and model of the clutter of an artist’s life.

“Tackles the themes of stress, therapy and growing up as a Baptist in 1970’s Ireland.” (Irish Mail Sept 07)

  • The Convent brings its 2005 sexiest show award winning cast from ‘The Hospital’ back for this tale of three nuns and some controversial subject matter.

“Brilliant choreography and some sharp humour.” (The Event Guide Sept 07) “Stigmata, visions and frenzies, power and humiliation, sex and violence are not just intimated at but actually simulated for our delectation with gleeful physicality and theatrical finesse.” (Metro)