If you ask a snob what a Fringe Festival is, they might reply, “you’ve never heard of Fringe?” or worse, “you’ll know it when you see it.” At Green Bay Fringe, we pride ourselves on not being snobs. So, we’ll provide some context.

The original Fringe Festival, in Edinburgh, Scotland, began in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival. The International Festival was conceived with the goal of bringing curated high-culture to the city in the form of musical acts and the performing arts. Fringe cropped up as an alternative fest for those acts that showed up uninvited and wanted somewhere to perform anyway. Whatever venues were available—theaters, galleries, bars, shops and more—housed these acts and a new festival was born. That’s the ethos of Fringe, the spirit every festival since has sought to capture. 

Fringe is for those acts on the outskirts of the mainstream, the theatre, comedy, performing arts, music, and more that you might not see in a traditional festival. Fringe acts are known for being weird and abstract, thought-provoking and irreverent—but they don’t have to be any of that. Anything performed at the Fringe festival is Fringe. And that’s that. 

Here are some ideas of what Fringe can be:

• A Gregorian chant cover band

• A one-man show about depression set in a cubicle

• An entirely improvised reality TV spoof

• An interpretive dance about the horrors of war

• A puppet show for kids!

• A play where everyone is silent, including the audience

Phoebe Waller Bridge’s hit show, Fleabag started at Edinburgh Fringe. So did Taskmaster, the competition show, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the absurdist play. 

Short answer: Fringe is whatever you want it to be. If you have an act you’d like to submit, check out our Submissions Page for more details.

The inaugural Green Bay Fringe Festival will take place from July 18-21, 2024. This four-day fest will include multiple acts at several downtown venues. Come for one show or catch every show you can! More information about acts and ticketing will be available on our Ticketing Page in May, 2024. 

Why Green Bay?

Why not? Green Bay has always been sort of a Fringe city. We’re the third largest metro in Wisconsin and the smallest market in the U.S. to have an NFL team. We’re the birthplace of both splinter-free toilet paper and Tony Shaloub. We take pride in being called Cheeseheads and we have a soup called Booyah. 

More importantly, Green Bay is a growing arts community. Arts and culture nonprofits have increased by 67% since 2015, bucking national trends. There are dozens of small theater companies, arts organizations, and music venues in our city and thousands upon thousands of arts supporters. We resemble in many ways the humble, unassuming, working-class arts community that begat the original Fringe Festival. And we take pride in that.

We’re using our Fringe Festival as an opportunity to give a platform to our city’s art. We’re inviting acts from around the state, country, or world that want to see what Green Bay has to offer. We’re building bridges that connect artists to audiences, audiences to Fringe, and Fringe to Green Bay. 

If you want to join us — as a performer, audience member, donor, or volunteer — please sign up for our mailing list below and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your support means the world to us!