Edmonton’s annual performing arts free-for-all festival is wrapping up Sunday with a new attendance record. Organizers for the 45th annual Edmonton Internation Fringe Festival said a record 825,000 people visiting the festival’s sites in and around Old Stratchona, with 142,000 tickets sold to its 209 indoor productions. That includes records of 550 sold-out shows, 24 sold-out runs and $1.53 million going back to artists, the festival said Sunday in a media release. The 11-day spectacle is North America’s largest and longest-running Fringe Festival, and was expected to contribute more than $20 million in economic impact locally, the festival said. Eleven shows have been held over for the coming week -- two of them, The Butter Chicken Odyssey and Bean Stalk Market Crash, are already sold out -- and will be staged at a pair of theatres in the heart of the south-side Fringe site just north of Whyte Avenue between Gateway Boulevard and Calgary Trail. Last year, organizers said the Fringe set an all-time box office record with 138,500 tickets sold. They also said the 2025 edition saw 490 sold-out performances and 14 sold-out runs, with $1.47 million going back to artists.
