Edmonton fringe festival wraps up with continued fundraising push

The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is done for another summer.

The 11-day festival wrapped up with promising numbers on Sunday night in Old Strathcona.

As of noon Sunday, the fringe had sold 127,000 tickets, which translates to more than $1.3 million going back to the artists.

“This is the second-largest festival payout to artists in the history of our organization,” executive director Megan Dart said.

“What’s staggering about that is that is with 40 less shows,” added artistic director Murray Utas. “That year where it was the number one, it was 256 (shows). We’re 216 (shows) this year.”

This year, about 750,000 site visits were recorded at the fringe festival, up from about 550,000 site visits last year.

“(It’s) a little more familiar to what pre-pandemic visitation was like back in 2019,” Dart said.

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The festival did fall short of its Sustain Fringe Campaign fundraising goal of $300,000. The campaign launched in March amid skyrocketing festival costs. Dart said Sunday the campaign raised $228,000.

“As a chartable arts organization, charitable giving is such an important part of how we sustain our operations, so it will be a message that we continue to share for many, many years to come,” Dart said.

“We are so proud of the work we’ve accomplished as a community of artists, volunteers, staff, and Edmontonians to continue to sharing such a high calibre festival despite financial restraints.”

Dart said that when the campaign launched in March, the festival had 34 monthly donors. Now, it has more than 500 monthly donors.

Both Dart and Utas said this year’s festival was a huge success.

“I think in terms of a festival and what a celebration it was to bring community and artists together again, we are just beaming with pride for what an incredible event it’s been,” Dart said.

“I’ve seen so much joy coming from every area,” Utas added. “I love this collision of this festival of artist and audience, of volunteers and audience, and the sharing of it and the friendships that are being formed. It’s really lovely.”

The festival’s holdover series starts this Wednesday and runs through the long weekend.

To donate to the Sustain Fringe Campaign, visit the festival’s website, fringetheatre.ca.