Tenth annual Fringe will be a hybrid festival, Sept. 14-25

April 2, 2021, Rochester, NY – Today, New York State is allowing indoor and outdoor performing arts venues to reopen. On that celebratory note, organizers of the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival announce that they are planning a hybrid experience for their tenth annual festival, featuring both as safely enjoyed, in-person as well as online performances and events. The dates – Tuesday, September 14 through Saturday, September 25, 2021 – are the same ones originally announced last year.

“Because things are changing so rapidly and will likely continue to do so right up until the festival, we work closely with local, state, and federal officials to make sure we have the latest information to make the best decisions,” says Founding Festival Producer Erica Fee. “We are 100% committed to ensuring the greatest degree of safety possible for both artists and audiences at our 2021 Fringe.”

“I want to commend the efforts of festival organizers for the virtual event they put on in 2020 and for their plans to have both in-person and virtual experiences for 2021, ensuring everyone has access,” adds Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.  “I also want to thank KeyBank for sponsoring the event, as well as local and state officials for their work to allow events like this to take place in 2021.”

Other important updates:

  • The non-profit festival plans to have in-person events in the City of Rochester.
  • The submission period for artists to apply to Fringe venues or its online platform will be announced soon.
  • Fringe is supporting its venues by offering guidance and resources that will allow for the safe return of indoor and outdoor performances.
  • The tenth annual Fringe’s entire show schedule will be announced and tickets placed on sale this summer.

“Our city was simply not the same without our lineup of special events last summer, so we are thrilled to hear that some of our most treasured events like the Fringe are planning to put on safe, in-person shows that will allow us to come together once again as a community,” states Mayor Lovely Warren.

Last year’s Virtual Fringe offered more than 170 online productions, both live-streamed and on-demand, giving artists a platform and connecting audiences throughout our community and beyond. The 2019 Fringe featured more than 650 performances and events – over 200 of them free – in 25+ downtown venues and broke all previous attendance records with more than 100,000 visitors.

“This year’s Fringe won’t look like last year’s or 2019’s, but it will be innovative, creative, and unique,” promises Fee. “We can’t wait to celebrate our tenth anniversary with both an in-person, local audience as well as an online, global one.”

From its five-day debut in 2012, the 12-day KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival has become one of the fastest-growing and most-attended fringe festivals in the U.S.  It is also the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival in New York State. As a bifurcated festival, it allows for a combination of headline entertainment curated by the non-profit Rochester Fringe Festival as well as an open-access portion.

Rochester Fringe Festival connects and empowers artists, audiences, venues, educational institutions, and the community to celebrate, explore, and inspire creativity via an annual, multi-genre arts festival. It was pioneered by several of Rochester’s esteemed cultural institutions including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman Museum and Garth Fagan Dance; up-and-coming arts groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine; and higher-education partners such as the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. The not-for-profit organization’s overarching mission is to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills, while being as diverse and inclusive as possible.

2020 sponsors included: KeyBank; New York State Council on the Arts; University of Rochester; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; Nocon & Associates Waldron Rise; RIT; Estate of Marianne Rohack; National Endowment for the Arts; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; Konar Enterprises; Mary Mulligan Trust; Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; ESL Foundation; JM McDonald Foundation; The Pike Company; Louis S. & Molly B. Wolk Foundation; Fred & Floy Willmott Foundation; ESL Foundation; Big Slide Creative; Cheshire Audio Visual;13WHAM TV; CITY Newspaper; D&C Digital; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; City Blue; WXXI; The Rubens Family Foundation; Bond Schoeneck & King; Boylan Code; and Canandaigua National Bank.

About KeyBank: KeyBank’s roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $170.3 billion at December 31, 2020. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of over 1,000 branches and more than 41,000 KeyBank ATMs and Allpoint surcharge free ATMs for many customers when using a KeyBank debit card nationwide. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications, and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

Media please note: Fringe press assets can be found at rochesterfringe.com/press.

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