Edmonton Fringe Festival celebrating 45 years, with finances improving
Posted June 30, 2026 9:30 am.
More than 200 performances are going through rehearsals for the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.
The 11-day festival takes over 37 venues across Old Strathcona and Edmonton’s French Quarter from Aug. 13-23.
This year, for its 45th anniversary, the festival theme is “Fringe Unforgettable.”
“Fringe turns moments into memories and memories into traditions, those are those unforgettable moments that we carry with us forever,” said Megan Dart, the Fringe Theatre’s executive director. “Fringe has left an indelible mark on Edmonton. Edmonton would not be the same without North America’s largest, longest fringe theatre festival.”
Returning this year is a free bus shuttle connecting the two areas, along with an expanded Indigenous gathering space and a series celebrating the city’s queer community.
Last year, the Fringe Theatre was facing financial strain, still recovering from millions lost from the COVD-19 pandemic. But things are looking better now, thanks to more than 800 monthly donors in the last year keeping the festival afloat.
“We are still facing the crunch of increasing the costs to produce the festival of our size matched against the reality that our funding continues to remain stagnated,” Dart said. “Certainly those monthly donors are helping us close that gap, but that gap is not closed yet. We have a lot of work to do.”
Fringe tickets go on sale Aug. 5. The festival says every show ticket is $20 or less.
