Festival Director’s Message

Welcome to the 2014 Ottawa Fringe Festival! I’ve been around Fringe a long time, and am thrilled to have recently been named Festival Director. This is shaping up to be another great year for the Fringe: 400 performances of 60 shows in 14 venues over 11 days. How many of those shows will you see?

And while the Fringe has been on an incredible run of success over the past few years, we’re always looking to improve your experience, so we’ve made a few changes to the festival this year:

• Advance Tickets – 100% of our tickets are  now available in advance. Really want to see the show that’s been selling out every night? Buy your ticket in advance and avoid standing in line only missing out. 

• More Box Offices –  it’s easier than ever to get tickets. In addition to the main Box Office located in Arts Court, we’ve added a satellite box office in the lobby of Studio Léonard-Beaulne, where you can buy advance tickets and 5 & 10-show passes.

• Half-Price Hut – looking for discount tickets? Every day the Half-Price Hut (found in the Fringe Courtyard) will offer rush tickets for performances taking place that day and the next (and you you’ll find 5 & 10 show passes and merch there as well!).  

• More Free Programming – in addition to a series of free concerts in the Courtyard, this year we’ve added Fringe Late Night – a late night talk show running every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at midnight in the Arts Court Studio.

And I’d be remiss, of course, if I didn’t mention that Ottawa’s undercurrents: theatre below the mainstream festival will be produced by the Fringe and take place at Arts Court in February 2015 – produced by the Ottawa Fringe! We couldn’t be happier to bring a winter festival to Arts Court Theatre.

And speaking of 2015… you may have heard Arts Court will be undergoing a major redevelopment starting this fall, involving construction of a new building where the Courtyard is today. And while the new building’s additional performance spaces will will undoubtedly benefit the Fringe Festival moving forward, I may need twice as long a Director’s Message to tell you about all the changes in 2015. Best rest assured, the 2015 Ottawa Fringe Festival will take place in Downtown Rideau, and we’ve already begun planning. Stay tuned for details.

Remember: the Fringe returns 100% of ticket sales directly back to our participating artists. A $10 ticket is the best deal in town, so I encourage you to take a risk – buy a ticket to something you might otherwise not and discover an artist who might become a favourite. That’s what the Fringe is all about, isn’t it? 

Happy Fringing!