Vancouver Fringe Festival returns with bolstered line up after 2024 government funding

Vancouver Fringe Festival will host 87 shows and 630 performances for its 2025 running.

The Vancouver Fringe Festival, where the only thing that can be expected is the unexpected, has kicked off for another year.

Running until Sept. 14, this year’s lineup comprises 87 shows and 630 performances that highlight all forms of creativity. Guests can expect everything from physical theatre, circus and cabaret to comedy, spoken word poetry and art installations.

The schedule includes newcomers, like the first ever Kids Fringe – two days of free programming for those aged four to 12 with family friendly performances and workshops – and one-offs, like a one night only collaboration with the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival on Sept. 4.

An all-ages Fringe Bar will run free programming every evening, ensuring those who are tightening their purse strings can still revel in the weird and whacky.

“This is our largest festival since before the pandemic,” says Fringe Vancouver’s executive director Duncan Watts-Grant, crediting the bolstered line-up to a flurry of financial support that poured in after a fundraising campaign was launched last year.

“We are incredibly grateful for all the donors and supporters who are directly giving to sustain the future of the Fringe,” he says.

Organizers are particularly thankful to the sizable federal funding offered in December, with the $520,000 investment put forward by Canadian Heritage having a “tremendous effect” on the organizers’ ability to stabilize the Fringe, he says.

The festival isn’t merely rescued but is now thriving, and Watts-Grant is already looking to the future. In the coming years, growing Fringe locally could mean increasing its free programming and supporting artist training.

In 2024 the festival was facing financial uncertainty after years of struggling to keep afloat following the pandemic, and Vancouver was looking at the very real possibility of losing a fundamental piece of the city’s arts and culture scene.

The festival, a part of the Fringe movement that began in Edinburgh in 1947 and North America’s second oldest spin off, has become a place where artists of all kinds cut their teeth. Local performance as it currently stands might not exist if it wasn’t for the Fringe, says Watts-Grant.

“There isn’t an actor, director, stage manager, or technician who hasn’t been involved with the Fringe at some point in their career,” he says.

“We have become a hub for artists wanting to get their start in Vancouver.”

Angela Rinaldis, lawyer, performer and the brains behind murder trial-focused solo show Every Murder Has A Happy Ending, says the Fringe provides exposure to the budding artists who would typically struggle to find a welcoming space to bring their stories to life.

“I value how it supports all artistic expression, and it encourages artistic freedom,” she says.

Rinaldis will be one of several artists this year stepping away from the typical setting of performance and bringing a unique venue – her own cafe on Granville Island – to the lineup.

To those who are on the fence about whether or not Fringe Festival, with its uniqueness in style and off-kilter acts, is for them, Rinaldis says rewards often come to those who step out of their comfort zone, especially artists.

“You will be exposed to a variety of creative ideas and live talent that just may light a spark inside of you and give you the push you need to dust off that script you’ve been working on,” she says.

Gordon Woolvett, the man behind the Squid Games-inspired Duck Duck Moose set to feature at The Improv Theatre, says guests can expect to see “crazy shows and fun ideas” that they likely won’t see anywhere else.

“I’m a big fan of hybrid formats or shows that exist outside the mainstream, and that’s what I love most about Fringe,” he says, adding how there’s a good chance visitors will even witness a show that goes on to become a huge success long before anybody else does.

“Where else can you see so many shows in the most beautiful city on the planet, at an incredibly beautiful location like Granville Island while the weather is great and with ticket prices for $20 or less?”