Fringe offers eclectic selection

By Otago Daily Times | Posted:

Dunedin Fringe Festival is the first major event out of the box for 2021, and has a huge programme to offer local audiences.

After spending much of 2020 working to nurture Dunedin’s creative community through the ravages of Covid-19, festival director Gareth McMillan and his team are excited to be leading the 21st anniversary of the festival.

The official Dunedin Fringe Festival programme was to be launched last night with a function drawing together the city’s arts community.

McMillan said the festival would feature mainly local and New Zealand artists, spiced with "a smattering of nativised internationals".

Acts include comedy, theatre, improvisation, music, poetry, spoken word, cabaret, visual art, performance art, moving image, and community events.

McMillan is confident that the Fringe Festival would have content for everyone, thanks in part to the development of a digital platform.

In his foreword to the Dunedin Fringe Festival programme, Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said, over the past two decades, the festival had built "a sprawling network of artists across New Zealand, and the world, to become one of the country’s leading festival destinations".

"It’s also an incredible asset to our local creative community, providing them with a platform upon which to develop new and exciting work," Mr Hawkins said.

To celebrate the Dunedin Fringe Festival’s 21st birthday, there will be an Opening Night Party on March 17, hosted by comedians Michele A’Court and Jeremy Elwood. The mayhem and merriment will continue with live music and dancing.

Popular festival pop-up venue the Emerson’s Festival Theatre [in the Community Gallery space] will offer a selection of daily shows and a late night line up of comedy and theatre, from Thursday to Saturday during the festival.

The Black Box space will return at the front of Fringe Festival HQ on Princes St, offering fresh, small-scale acts.

https://www.odt.co.nz/the-star/fringe-offers-eclectic-selection