Online & in-person shows: apply for free at rochesterfringe.com June 8 – 29

June 3, 2021, Rochester, NY – Organizers of the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival announce today that shows may apply to participate in the 2021 Fringe via rochesterfringe.com from Tuesday, June 8 through Tuesday, June 29.

The tenth annual festival – Tuesday, September 14 through Saturday, September 25 – will be a hybrid experience for the first time, featuring both safely enjoyed, in-person as well as online performances and events. Both types of shows will use the same free application process, with in-person submissions going directly to whichever venues shows choose. Applications for online shows – whether live-streamed or on-demand – will also be accepted. Detailed and up-to-date information and instructions will be available by June 8 at rochesterfringe.com.

“We thank the arts community for being patient with our later-than-usual submission period this year, but we’re committed to presenting a festival that is both exciting and safe,” says Founding Festival Producer Erica Fee. “While some of our regular venues will not be reopening until later in 2021 or even until 2022, our overarching mission remains the same: to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills while also offering unparalleled public access to the arts. With that in mind, Fringe is expanding this year to include venues outside of our usual footprint, including the new JCC Canalside Stage.”

Last year’s completely Virtual Fringe offered more than 170 online productions, both live-streamed and on-demand, connecting artists and audiences throughout our community and far 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.

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 based on the 74-year-old Edinburgh Fringe model.

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 also offering unparalleled public access to the arts. It strives to be diverse and inclusive, and to stimulate downtown Rochester both culturally and economically.

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 $176.1 billion at March 31, 2021. 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 a Member FDIC.

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

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