The Fringe Lottery

The 30th annual Ottawa Fringe Festival will run for 11 days, June 17th-27th, 2027. With 60 performing companies presenting upwards of 300 performances, the Fringe is Ottawa’s largest and longest-running theatre festival, returning over $160,000 to participating artists each year!

A proud member of The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, the Ottawa Fringe returns 100% of box office revenue into the pockets of its participants – and is committed to giving artists the opportunity to produce work in a non-curated and highly accessible environment.

The only constraints on material or content are the consideration of legality and the health and safety of all those involved, including artists, staff, volunteers and audiences. The Fringe reserves the right to enforce necessary safety measures.

Lottery

The Ottawa Fringe lottery will open in October 9th, 2026, and close November 27th. All complete applications received before the deadline will be entered into the lottery. The lottery draw will take place on December 1st.

Unsuccessful applicants may be drawn on the waiting list. Once the waitlist is full, all other applicants will be placed in the ‘heartbreak’ list and encouraged to reapply the following year.

All applicants will be notified via Eventotron or by email of their acceptance or waiting list status no later than one week following the lottery.

Lottery results will also be posted on our website as soon as possible.

IMPORTANT: Before applying to the 2027 Ottawa Fringe Festival, read through this webpage in full plus read the following Access Note. The Access Note details the accessibility requirements that all artists must meet to participate in the 2027 Ottawa Fringe Festival. Failure to meet these requirements may result in dismissal from the festival.

TWO-PHASE LOTTERY

Ottawa Fringe commits to reserving at least 25% of available Fringe slots in the lottery for participants who are Indigenous, Black or People of Colour. The two-phase lottery draw is a measure we’ve implemented to deliberately strengthen equity at the Festival.

When we hold the 2027 Lottery, each category’s draw will have two phases:

  • PHASE ONE: Applicants who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Colour will be entered into the draw exclusively for the first 25% of all available slots in the category.
  • PHASE TWO: Once at least 25% of total slots are filled by IBPOC applicants, or if no more IBPOC applicants remain to draw from (whichever occurs first), the remaining slots will be drawn from all applicants in the category.

The Producer is considered the individual applying who must identify as IBPOC for the application to be included in the first drawing phase. We ask that applicants who select this also commit to at least half or more of their creative and performance team identifying as IBPOC as well.

BYOVs – Bring Your Own Venues

Disappointed you didn’t get into the Fringe, and too far down the waitlist to have a hope of getting into the Festival? You can submit a Bring Your Own Venue (BYOV) application.

BYOV applications will become available January 15th, 2027.

Feel free to contact the Executive & Artistic Director if you have any questions about BYOVs.

Learn More

Participating in The Ottawa Fringe Festival

Acceptance Policy

Applications are entered into a lottery, and accepted according to the following geographically tiered quotas:

  • 50% of the spots are reserved for Local artists (applying from within Ottawa/Gatineau)
  • 30% are reserved for National artists (applying from outside Ottawa/Gatineau, but within Canada)
  • 20% are reserved for International artists (applying from outside Canada)
  • A select number of spots will be reserved for Francophone productions*

*To be eligible for the Francophone category, productions must be presented entirely in French or have predominantly Francophone content.

Application Process

Applications must be received no later than December 5th, 2025 at 11:59pm EST.

All applicants must include a $25.00 Lottery Fee, which must be paid at the time of application. Applications that do not include a Lottery Fee will not be processed.

You may NOT submit more than one application to the Ottawa Fringe.

Each application must identify a Producer. Once submitted, neither the Producer name nor the Company name on your application can be changed.

One person cannot act as Producer for more than one application.

If accepted into the Festival, you cannot transfer/sell your spot to another company.

Please keep a copy of your application form. For safety.

Successful applicants will be required to pay a $660 registration fee in the weeks following the Lottery to secure their spot in the festival.

Ready to Apply?

That’s all! You now have all the information you need before submitting your application, which takes less than five minutes to complete.

You’ll receive a confirmation note as soon as the application has been submitted and a copy of your application will be emailed to you. If you don’t receive it, contact us and we’ll sort things out.

Best of luck in the lottery!

Apply Now