Newcastle Fringe Festival 2021 is in full swing this weekend with more than 45 performances scheduled.
The event's official launch party was held on Wednesday night under a marquee behind Carrington's Franky's Dumplings & Noodles. It has been a long wait for all those involved after the cancellation of the 2020 festival due to the pandemic.
Newcastle Fringe Festival has been running since 2016 and growing every year. Last year's festival was lining up to be the biggest festival since inception, with ticket sales up 250 per cent on the previous year, but due to COVID, had to be cancelled.
Fast forward 12 months and the 2021 festival is bigger than anything the Fringe team could imagine, with more than 100 events running over five days at 11 different venues across the city of Newcastle. Ticket sales have quadrupled with several shows selling out in advance.
New additions to the festival include the inaugural Newcastle Fringe Emerging Film Makers Festival had 91 entries from 24 different countries and features shorts and animations before a screening of AACTA award nominated film A Lion Returns; a free family weekend of activities including markets, street performers, workshops and live music at The Station; a series of workshops for kids, adults, students and professionals; and a series of double bills performing at Lizotte's.
All of this, in addition to the usual fare of burlesque, theatre, comedy, poetry, children's theatre, circus and music of every possible genre.
If you can't physically make it to the festival this year, organisers have been kind enough to livestream five shows (#bingenewyfringe) from 12.01am on March 22 until 11.59pm on March 28. One international show and one from Melbourne will also be available for streaming on demand.
A six-show pass is $55 or individual shows range in price from $10 to $18. Tickets are available from stickytickets.com.au/newcastlefringe.
Why not host your own Fringe Festival party? Shows that are streaming include:
Safe by Federico Maria Giansanti, a post-apocalyptic stage play set in the time of a pandemic.
Bad Ass by Tash York, which sold out at Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 and won Best Cabaret Weekly Award at Adelaide Fringe in 2018. Tash is hailed as one of the best cabaret artists in the business.
Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairytales which has almost sold out. Soprano Eliane Morel transports you to a 17th century Parisian salon for a night of sexy, subversive laughs.
Mad Bitches Inc, a female-centric cabaret with wild performance poetry and cutting-edge theatre, and Camino Man by Steve Wilson, a heartwarming and hilarious tale of one man's journey of self-recovery.
WCB by Sigil, an exploration of musical spellcasting through surreal projected landscapes, and Fever by Slayge and the Grotty Gang, a visceral, unworldly piece of performance art set in a dystopian society.
What's on this weekend?
FOR THE KIDS
There are plenty of child-friendly options (not livestreamed) this weekend. Switch Witchetty is suitable for ages five and over. Do the Hibble Hop is suitable for ages two to 10 and is an interactive hip-hop experience with puppetry, rap and dancing. Circus Box features underwater acrobatics, puppetry and fire hoop diving. Fringe for Families at The Station on Sunday there's live music, street theatre and evening markets from 4pm to 8pm.
FOR YOUNG ADULTS
The team behind Jopuka Productions on the Central Coast is bringing three theatrical productions suitable for older teens: Gaybies, Moth or Samson. There's also WCB: Sigil, an exploration of neo-soul, R&B, electronica and trip-hop, and Daydreamers Playhouse starring locals from Newcastle Fire & Flow.
FOR MUSIC LOVERS
Zlatko's Balkan Cabaret aims to free your inner gypsy and Hunter Wind Quintet has classical music covered. Red Orchestra and Piss to EME are a double bill featuring electro tech through to subversive punk; Sunday at the Station features Ukestra, Nerds & Music, Julie McVey, and UoN Bandcomp winners Viragos; there's Nerds & Music with Clark Gormley and Wayne Thompson; and The Music of Petty Nicks and The Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood Experience is a double bill running at Lizotte's.
FOR BARGAIN HUNTERS
Jawbone by Alex Lykos is a provocative, bold, dark comedy written and performed by filmmaker Alex Lykos. Get $5 off any performance with the code LYKOS. Jane Austen: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly presented by the local Jane Austen Society is free but tickets still need to be booked. It will be lots of fun and may include zombies. Not for the Cultched with award-winning bush poet David Melville is just $10 (pensioners free), and Failure to Launch with Clark Gormley and Robert Edmonds will set you back $5.
FOR THEATRE, CABARET & COMEDY LOVERS
Camino Man is a one-man show starring local Steve Wilson and Make America Great Again is a musical all about Donald Trump. Fever by Slayge and The Grotty Gang is a darkly comic piece built on sustainable principles. Black Starr Cabaret is a modern day vaudeville show where the misfits will tantalise and beguile you. Enjoy some stand-up comedy with Amoral by Tom Witcombe.
FOR POETRY LOVERS
Pop Poetry with Eddy Rockefeller is a must and so is Girls to the Front, a showcase of poetry films by women and gender diverse.
