WATCH ABOVE: The 33rd edition of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival ended by setting a few records. Vinesh Pratap finds out where organizers would like to see the event go from here.
EDMONTON – The 2014 Edmonton International Fringe Festival has come to a close and organizers are touting the event as a great success.
“I made the joke the other day that I’m nuclear exhausted,” said Fringe Program Director Murray Utas, “but in a good way. It was a very positive festival.”
The 11 days of ‘Fringed and Confused’ saw an estimated 665,000 people come through the gates.
This year, there were 118,280 tickets sold for the more than 1,600 performances. That’s up 600 from 2013.
“We had 335 sell-outs. That’s a record as well,” Utas added.
“Three-hundred and thirty-five sold-out performances – that’s amazing.”
“We’ve been steadily growing the ticket sales,” said Utas. “We’ve still got lots of room in those theatres though.. I’m really going to be making a push in the next little while to get the bums in the seats and look at making sure that it’s a market place that’s good for all 210 shows.”
“It’s grown to a point where it’s international in scope,” he explained. “A lot of people know about it. We’re the largest and oldest in North America. You don’t take that lightly.”
Organizers say all aspects of the festival were a huge success.
“We have had a great festival,” said Fringe Executive Director Jill Rozsell. “We have had a beautiful 11 days, lots of people here on site, we’ve had a phenomenal amount of great shows and we are very, very happy.”
The festival has announced six holdover shows that people will be able to checkout between August 27 and 30.
The shows include three Edmonton productions: “McCrackin 2: The Whackining,” “Red Wine, French Toast, and The Best Sex You’ve Ever Had,” and “Propylene Glycol, Maltodextrin, Retinol Palmitate, and Other Words I Don’t Understand Like Love.”
Read More: 2014 Edmonton Fringe Festival reviews
Next year’s festival begins on August 13.
Comments