Alright y’all, this is gonna be a big one. We’ve got two big announcements for you, but before we get to that, let’s not forget about this year’s Nights on the Fringe!
This year’s Nights took place June 2nd and 3rd. Here are the highlights:
- Aaron Henkin, Umar Khan, and Josh Kuderna set the stage for the night with witty banter and great chemistry!
- All artists were great! Some standouts were Cagesafe Production’s multi-media presentation of their web series Blue Light and Grim Jackson’s high energy, and thought-provoking slam poetry.
- House band, Telepathic Dog, kept the evening moving with sweet jazz tunes.
- Awaiting patrons outside of Baltimore Theatre Project were stilt walkers, jugglers, accordionists, and more!
- We wish Katie Kopatjic luck as she makes her way to Scotland for the 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe!
You can relive Nights on the Fringe by checking out the full gallery of photos.
This year’s theme
Our city hosts incredible venues like the Hippodrome, Everyman Theatre, Center Stage, and a myriad of performing arts groups. Baltimore has hosted, and continues to host, an array of famous performers and artists throughout the years. Fringe helps cement newer artists and give them a chance to show their work to our city.
Fringe is just one part of Bird City’s theatre community, but we aim to make it one where all kinds of performance arts can show their work, whether they’re mimes, poets or an acro yoga troupe. It’s not just for artists — it means that our city’s residents get a taste of a variety of performances.
This year, we will also bring the performing arts directly to Baltimoreans outside the walls of our venues, through promotion, direct interaction, and performance. All of these ideas are summed up neatly in this year’s theme: “theatre without boundaries.”
The arts deserve a chance to enrich everything. Let’s show Baltimore City all sorts of performances and create opportunities for artists, and bring the arts into nontraditional venues. These ideas will wind throughout the festival, in the selection of performances, the venues, and the way we promote the arts in Baltimore.
We’ve found a new home
Charm City Fringe has been around for 5 years, and in all that time we’ve bounced between venues in northern Baltimore, often in buildings that are kind of far from each other. This year, however, you’ll be able to attend the whole festival in one place at one time.
This year, we’re heading downtown to the fast-growing Bromo Arts District. It’s host to performing arts organizations like Everyman Theatre, EMP Collective, The France Merrick Performing Arts Center, and more. We’d like to thank the district and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore for providing programming and financial support.
Our festival will run from November 2–12, all across Bromo in locations like the Maryland Art Place, the Downtown Cultural Arts Center, and Le Mondo. This move is going to let attendees see the festival all in one location, and walk from venue to venue with ease, all while being near downtown’s amenities. We hope to see you there!
One more thing…
Fringe has a lot of moving parts, and pulling off the festival off every year takes a lot of work. We can always use help with things like ticket-taking and concessions. If you want a chance to help out there, or anywhere on the Fringe team, join our Charm City Fringe Volunteers group. We’ll post whenever we have volunteer opportunities, or when we find cool stuff. Can't volunteer but still want to help? Consider donating to Fringe so we can keep giving artists a venue to showcase their talent.