The 2016 Fringe World Festival kicks off tonight in Perth and a number of fabulous venues all across Western Australia for 31 days of ~Perthect~ entertainment.
This year’s Fringe World guide is choc full of over 700 events, from comedy to cabaret, circus, dance and myriad attractions for the little ones.
This year’s lineup includes international Fringe favourites such as the infamous La Soiree, the soulful stylings of Le Gateau Chocolat, the cheeky antics from the boys of Briefs and the the much anticipated all-new circus-cabaret extravaganza, Limbo.
The Pleasure Gardens will return to Northbridge’s Russell Square, and a number of new venues will open this year – including the debut of Elisabeth Quay, replete with Fringe World’s all new fairgrounds.
Festival Director Amber Hasler said the areas where people got to mingle and interact were a central part of the Fringe World experience, keeping these areas vibrant and refreshed each year is one of the hardest parts of creating the festival.
“The Pleasure Garden and the cultural centre are part of the quintessential Fringe experiences, we think about ways that we can keep it fresh and ‘change it up’ and add new things.”
One of the areas Amber is excited about this year is the addition of the Get Lost Maze at the pleasure gardens.
“That process of keeping it fresh is challenging, but it’s also a very rewarding process for us to go through. “ Amber said.
This year the festival took on a huge challenge in adding an additional site down at the new Elizabeth Quay space adjacent to the river. This area will open during the festival’s second week. Amber said the space was looking amazing and said the contractors completing Perth’s biggest renovation project deserved a lot of praise for getting in completed on time.
Over the last few years the Fringe Festival has grown considerably but the artistic director said she still tries to see as many shows as she possibly can.
“I’m out every night, I see at least two or three shows and try to move around to as many of the spaces as possible.” Amber said, noting that some time she liked to just randomly pick a show, “Sometimes I just go up to the box office and ask, what’s on in the next 15 minutes, and how far do I have to walk?”
Picking which show to see can be a big challenge, but Amber had a few recommendations, top of her list to ‘check out’ is the new space at Elizabeth Quay including the Perth urban Roller Club – a giant outdoor roller skating rink and the big Speigeltent shows ‘La Soiree’ and ‘Limbo’.
Check out the full guide and plan your Fringe experience at www.fringeworld.com.au
Update: An earlier version of this article identified the man with Ms Hasler as Jacques Lucont, rather than Marcel Lucont. Marcel Lucont is a funny guy, Jacques Lu Cont is an awesome DJ, we have no idea if Marcel Lucont can DJ, or if indeed Stuart Price can tell a good joke.
