Fringe ON Tour invites one Ontario-based company to tour their show to each of three Fringe Festivals:

  • Ottawa Fringe
  • Toronto Fringe
  • Hamilton Fringe

With the three festivals’ dates lining up consecutively, it allows for travel between cities to be seamless, and for the artists to experience the exhilaration of touring a sold-out Fringe show. The three festivals support the artists with outreach and marketing, and the artists document their experience on the road. 

As the three largest Fringe Festivals under CAFF in Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton Fringe are thrilled to administer this pilot initiative. The aim is to have a broader scope in 2023, bringing in more festivals from across the province! 

This year’s company is Levity Theatre Co, who is kicking off Fringe ON Tour in Ottawa with their show Unmatched. Apt613 calls it: “Simultaneously funny, sad, and familiar. Unmatched … makes use of sophisticated theatrical storytelling”

canadian association of fringe festivals (Caff)

Ideals

The Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals was formed to protect these five guiding principles:

  • Participants will be selected on a non-juried basis, through a first-come, first-served process, a lottery, or other method approved by the Association.
  • Artists will receive 100% of the tickets and pass price, as agreed upon between the artists and festivals (less any applicable government taxes). Festivals may add a surcharge to tickets and passes.
  • Fringe Festival producers have no control over the artistic content of each performance. The artistic freedom of the participants is unrestrained.
  • Festivals must provide an easily accessible opportunity for all audiences and all artists to participate in Fringe Festivals.
  • Festivals will promote and model inclusivity, diversity and multiculturalism, and will endeavor to incorporate them into all aspects of our organizations including our boards, staff, and volunteers.
Mandate

In 1994, the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals was officially registered as a non-profit organization with the following mandate:

  • To safeguard the integrity of Fringe Festivals as outlined in the four minimum criteria.
  • To recognize that the health of all member Festivals is important to the Circuit and therefore the artists’ health as a whole.
  • To encourage communication and cooperation between member Festivals thereby fostering the continuity of our guiding principles.
Mission

The mission of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals is to unite, support, empower and strengthen member festivals in order to cultivate and foster independent artistic exploration for artists and audiences across North America

Fringe and Fringe Festival are registered trademarks of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) and cannot be used without expressed written permission from the Association. This trademark allows CAFF to ensure that any theatre festival in Canada that wishes to call itself “Fringe” must abide by the CAFF mandate and the four guiding principles.

For more information, please visit the CAFF website.