Welcome to Bath Fringe Festival

Fringe 2020 runs Friday May 22 – Sunday June 7 2020

The Bath Fringe is a festival of all the arts, with few rules as to what should be in or out – it’s what people want to do, and what venues in Bath want to put on. It all happens for 2 long weeks & 3 weekends (17 days or thereabouts) in early summer, in the beautiful city of Bath.

We are a Fringe of the ‘classic’ kind (like Edinburgh, Brighton & so on) and among the principles of those is that anyone can put an event in (for a fee, that pays for the programmes we print and put online) if they can organise it. In practice most programming is done by Bath venues, local promoters, or by the artists themselves, and a little bit by the Festival workers & committee. This all comes together so that just about everything in this programme is there because somebody around the place is really enthusiastic about it, and we’re sure that’s a good thing. The artists have also had to work to get this far: the festival is not paid for out of council tax, lottery money, deep corporate pockets or benefactors (tho’ we do have a little from all of those): the shows are financed by artists and venues – and ultimately your ticket money or trade. This art needs your personal investment.

Elegant Bath is a treasure-house of talent and culture, due in no small measure to its antiquity, its spells as spiritual capital of the island, and the fabled musicians, writers, scientists, actors, and artists of its 18th century. You will encounter their heirs throughout the festival, they and the visitors who love the city and its audiences (this means you). We are confident, whether you came here especially for the festival, just happen to be here (we do get a lot of visitors!), or live here or near, that you will find something to your taste, something to surprise you, and something to take you further.

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The ‘About the Fringe’ menu has some fairly comprehensive background detail on the Festival and the organisation that facilitates it. If you want to know more about the Fringe in general, peruse the menus above and below, or dip around under History. There are archived programmes from recent years, that will show you the sort of thing we do (even at times when the year’s programme isn’t really current).

Of course this year’s is always the best ever!