The Denver Fringe Festival is Returning for its Fourth Year in a Row
Returning this year from June 8 to June 11, the Denver Fringe Festival is back for its fourth year in a row. The festival strives to support the independent arts and artists with a lineup of 55 original shows across 12 venues in Denver’s RiNo and Five Points neighborhoods. The Fringe Festival is known for its open access and highlights a wide range of genres attracting a diverse lineup of artistic voices. It will be featuring 150-plus total performances across all types of performing arts. From musicals, plays, aerial and dance performances, to eight original plays, six immersive experiences, a two-day KidsFringe, and free street performances, there really is something for everyone.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Ann Sabbah, the executive director of the Denver Fringe Festival, to learn more about this year’s upcoming Fringe, and with a few of this year’s very talented performers. ALLurrr’em VelvIT is part of the all-Black burlesque collective called Melenated Menagerie who is bringing their show titled Don’t In-FRINGE Upon My… to the Mercury Cafe Ballroom on June 8, 9, and 10 at 10 p.m., and Amelia Corrada and Grace Olinski will be performing their show titled Triptych: A Shifting History of Inherent Femininity at Savoy Denver on June 9 at 5 pm, June 10 at 8 pm, and June 11 at 3:30 p.m.
Interview with Ann Sabbah
Can you tell me more about the concept of the Fringe Festival?
The Fringe Festival comes from a really old tradition that basically started 75 years ago in Edinburgh. What happened was that the city of Edinburgh, Scotland had a very world-renowned theatre festival where they invited different groups to come from all over; however, not everybody got invited. So the people who weren’t invited decided to start their own festival that took place on the fringes of the city. So that’s how it began, and then it really has spread; it’s a global movement.
There are Fringe Festivals all over in around 250 to 300 cities around the world, and each one has its own kind of flavor and its own way of doing things. There are some primary principles that are followed, but they are based upon open access, meaning anybody can apply and be juried fairly. Fringe Festivals are not very censored, allowing performers to fully express themselves, and a majority of ticket sales go back to artists, creating a strong emphasis on equity, making it a very fair across-the-board experience for everybody involved.
In Denver’s case, there’s a strong emphasis on access to the arts. Usually, ticket prices are pretty low so that more people can experience live performances. This creates a really beautiful kind of community synergy where we provide our part, the performers do their part, and in the end, everybody gets the best of everything.
What are some of the shows that will be happening this year, and why are you choosing to highlight those performances?
There are a lot of really topical shows including all original works. People want to write about and create shows discussing things that are important to our lives today, our culture, and our world. As for some examples, there’s one show about addiction, another show about prison reform, one about mental illness, a show about a transgender boy coming to terms with his past, and one about the freedom of the black and brown body. Another category that is really big this year is more immersive productions. It seems to be something that is really growing in Denver right now so we have six shows that fall into the category. The immersive shows are more of an involved experience allowing you to take part in what’s happening in the show making viewers feel more intimately involved.
Could you tell me more about queer and minority inclusion in the show this year and how the Fringe Festival represents those communities?
By the very nature of the festival itself, we are completely inclusive, have open access, and allow anybody to apply. We don’t really jury the shows performing in the festival, allowing us to present as many as we possibly can. I think because of the principle of the Fringe Festival, it attracts a widely diverse group of voices. One of the things that’s really just the most important thing to us is being able to represent all kinds of voices, experiences, and identities, and I think the Fringe Festival itself does a really good job of that.
Why is the Fringe Festival so important to have in so many cities across the globe?
I think of the Fringe Festival as an arts incubator. I feel like there’s an arts ecosystem and all the layers and parts of that ecosystem are equally as important. There are the high-dollar super highly produced Broadway touring shows and the incredible work that you can see at the Denver Center involving equity actors. However, what the Fringe Festival does is take a lot of the risk out of the equation for people who are producing for the first time, writing something new, or trying to find a way to get it in front of an audience.
For a producer or an actor, to go in, find the venue, rent the venue, pay for tech, the venue management, find a ticketing platform, and then go through all the hoops you have to go through to market it and get PR is a huge thing to take on. Especially for a new show or production company, the process can be very overwhelming and not accessible to everybody. So it’s really, really cool to see how many people are involved, and how we’ve doubled the number of applications received every year for the last three years.
Another really cool thing that’s happening amongst the performers is that a lot of people came back who participated last year and applied again with a different show. Other groups are even taking the shows that they developed at the Denver Fringe elsewhere. There’s a group called Soul Penny Circus here in town that participated in the Fringe Festival in 2021, and 2022, and is now taking their show all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland this upcoming summer where the Fringe first began.
How does the Fringe Festival directly impact the Denver community?
Well first off, we all know that Denver is just an extraordinarily expensive city. It’s very hard to find affordable plays or concerts and (doing so) is not always within everyone’s reach. I think that’s really what the Denver Fringe really strives to do is to make it open to all, and I think we do it pretty successfully. All tickets for the shows are $15, allowing way more people to experience the performing arts. Alongside providing a way for more people to participate in the performing arts and get in front of live audiences, it creates accessibility for both the performers and the audience.
What are you expecting for this year’s turnout?
Well, last year, we had around 3500 people buy a ticket, see a show, or experience an event. We also have some free street performances, bringing more people out to the festival, and are expecting a few 1000 attendees for this year’s Fringe. We will also have a kids’ component, which is pretty cool, where we will do two days of free kids’ productions, and kids’ programming from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday during the festival. So, I just think of it as a really great way to engage youth because then they have the opportunity to be exposed to the arts and could end up loving it and becoming a supporter of the arts as they get older.
What is your favorite part about the Fringe Festival?
God, it’s such an amazing community. My favorite part is seeing everybody who’s part of the Fringe from volunteers to the people who work during the festival, the venue managers, stage managers, performers, our community partners, local businesses, and then the audience themselves, I don’t know what it is about the Fringe, but it just attracts the best people. It’s just a really, really tight-knit wonderful, and supportive community.
Interview with ALLurrr’em VelvIT
Have you always been interested in performance art?
Yes, I can say I have always been interested in performance art. The thing is, I just got into the aspect of performing myself in front of an audience in the last, I would say, five, six years. Prior to that, I was always behind the scenes and behind the camera as a producer and production manager. So I’ve always been in the performance and entertainment realm, but as a performer, it’s something rather new to me.
Can you tell me more about your upcoming show at the Fringe Festival?
When I say we, I mean Melanated Menagerie. We are an all-Black burlesque collective based here in Denver and out of Las Vegas. The performance that we are doing with the Denver Fringe Festival is a little bit different than what we normally do, but not too far off of our scope. We are bringing forth a cabaret show that focuses on all of the topics that are really impacting us Black, BIPOC, and queer communities. So it’s going to be a lot of acts that speak towards some traumatic things that are going on. It will discuss legal issues that are occurring, transgressions that are being taken out on individuals, and the fact that there are so many missing murdered indigenous people out there.
Is this Melanated Menagerie’s first time performing at a Fringe Festival?
It is our first time participating in the Denver Fringe Festival, or any Fringe Festival at that. I was like, let me throw the hat in the ring and see if they would take my idea and they did because our performance is definitely right up the Fringe’s alley.
What are you most excited about participating in the Fringe Festival?
I’m excited to see a lot of things. I’ve been looking at the different shows that are being produced, and the different acts and the wide variety of performance art is what I’m looking the most forward to. Also, the fact that so many people are bringing their hearts to these performance spaces, I just thrive off of seeing stuff like that.
Why do you think events like the Fringe Festival are essential for communities?
Art is important, first of all, so events like Fringe Festivals are built to put a focus on the things that a lot of the world doesn’t find as important. It allows people to realize that without art, artists, and creative beings, the world would literally stop. I mean, we’re seeing it now with the writer’s strike and how they’re not being respected. They needed to put their foot down, and because of that, some of our entertainment is being halted. So it’s just making the world realize that they need to appreciate and accept art, and the creatives that produce it for what we do and all we put out in the world. Because in the end, we’re here to make the world happier in every way we can.
