Organizers of the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival say the event is struggling financially and that without immediate help, the future of the festival will be very different.
The Fringe launched a movement Monday to “sustain Fringe Theatre.” The organization has put out a call out to the community to donate to or sponsor the festival, or for people to volunteer their time to help keep the popular summer festival afloat.
“Expenses are skyrocketing; funding is dwindling; and previously dependable revenues are not keeping pace with the cost of producing our event,” executive director Megan Dart said.
“This rapidly evolving challenge is threatening the very fabric of our festival and others like it. Without immediate support, our festival will be very different.”
The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is the largest and longest running festival of its kind in North America. Last year, it received more than 500,000 site visits, drove more than $16 million into the local economy and returned more than $1.2 million in ticket sales directly to the artists.
However, the festival is still recovering from the $3 million loss in revenue it experienced by having to cancel the 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Based on industry insights, what was previously believed to be a three to five-year recovery window in the arts, is now being estimated at a 10-year post-pandemic rebuild,” Dart said.
In addition, Dart said funding from the municipal and provincial governments has remained relatively static over the last several years, and the organization is bracing for a 20 per cent cut to the Canadian Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF) this year, bringing funding back to 2015 levels.
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On top of all of this, the cost to produce the festival post-pandemic has gone up “astronomically,” Dart explained.
“The hard costs of building our festival site have almost doubled, our insurance has gone up by more than 45 per cent, our staffing costs to ensure safety on site has gone up by 42 per cent,” she said.
“We are seeing huge increases in our utilities just to keep the lights on and the doors open here at the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns and our funding simply isn’t keeping pace.”
Without immediate support, Dart said they run the risk of having to reduce the footprint of this year’s festival by about one-third.
“We are already having the conversation about the potential of having to scale our activity this year.”
Edmonton’s Fringe festival is not alone when it comes to its financial setbacks. Last week, Vancouver’s Fringe festival announced it is scaling back its 2024 festival by about one-third.
The Edmonton Fringe is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals and World Fringe. Organizers said without immediate financial support, some of the Fringe festivals around the world will not survive.
“The state that we find ourselves in is cause for concern,” Dart said.
Dart noted Fringe artists receive 100 per cent of the profit from their ticket sales.
“When you buy a ticket to a Fringe show, you are supporting the artists on the stage,” Dart said. “When you donate to Fringe Theatre, you ensure artists have access to all the essentials they need – the stage, the lights, the sound, the technicians, the audience – to tell their stories and propel their careers.”
Alyson Dicey is the Kids Fringe director and a long-time Fringe artist. She said the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is a great place for artists to launch their careers, and the potential scale-back has her worried.
“As an emerging artist coming out of the U of A, everyone told me, ‘Go do a Fringe show.’ That’s how you start, that’s how people make a name for themselves,” she said. “It’s scary and it’s sad where we’re at.”
She said succeeding in the arts industry is hard enough at the best of times and if the Fringe is forced to scale back, she’s worried about the impact it could have on artists’ careers.
“It would mean less opportunities for any of the artists that are trying new work here. They might move, they might go try another occupation because this isn’t working out for them.”
Dart said if every Fringe fan gave $5 per month, every month, it would be enough to sustain the festival.
“We believe in the transformative power of the arts and are committed to maintaining our impact,” Dart said. “But to achieve that, we need our community now more than ever.”
More information on how to donate can be found on the Fringe Theatre’s website.
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