More than 425 performances over 12 days, nearly 90% live & in-person

 

Rochester, NY (September 8, 2021) – The 10th anniversary KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival runs Tuesday, September 14 through Saturday, September 25 with more than 425 in-person and online performances and events ranging from comedy, dance, kids’ fringe, and multidisciplinary shows, to music, spoken word, theatre, and visual art & film. Tickets and a complete schedule are available at rochesterfringe.com.

“After 18 months of closure that have devastated the performing arts, we’re thrilled to play our part in getting them back on their feet,” says Founding Festival Producer Erica Fee. “Nearly 90% of our shows are live and in-person, which wouldn’t be possible without our absolute commitment to keeping performers and attendees safe.” (See the festival’s COVID-19 protocols.)

The 2021 festival will feature more than 120 free shows, including a special Fringe Finale at “The Five,” the City’s now-grassy, empty lot formerly known as Parcel 5. Fringe will present SMOKESTACKS, a mini music festival headlined and curated by nationally renowned Rochester band, Joywave. Performing from 4 – 10:30 PM on Saturday, September 25 will be: Cammy Enaharo, Mikaela Davis, Kopps, Spencer., Cannons, and Joywave.

The fifth, free Fringe Street Beat will take place on Saturday, September 18 at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, with prelims from 1-3:30 and finals from 4-5:30 PM. This all-out dance battle features top talent from across the Northeast, along with MC ha-MEEN (Ithaca), DJ SC One (Nyack), and three NYC competition judges. Teams of three compete for a cash prize of $1,200.

Three free, signature outdoor events return to One Fringe Place (corner of Main & Gibbs Streets, across from Eastman Theatre) this year:

  • Pedestrian Drive-In, nightly films – including In the Heights and Harriet – on the big screen
  • Kids Day, featuring Disco Kids, Chalk Art, and Pumpkin Painting on Saturday, September 18 from noon – 3 PM
  • Gospel Sunday, an afternoon of sacred song with the Zion Hill Mass Choir and host Reverend Rickey Harvey and Truly Committed, on Sunday, September 19 at 2 PM

In addition to an outdoor lounge called The Garden, One Fringe Place is also home to the Theatre Bar, Fringe Box Office, food trucks, and a beautiful Italian Circus Tent called “The Charlotte.” Inside, a Fringe-commissioned comedy and variety show created and directed by festival favorite Matt Morgan will make its World Premiere for 14 performances: Cirque du Fringe: AfterParty.

With a wedding-reception-gone-wild theme, AfterParty features Morgan and co-hosts Mark Gindick and Ambrose Martos, all of whom met at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and performed in the acclaimed off-Broadway show, Comedy Trio Happy Hour. Rounding out the cast are five very talented women: Ethiopian hula hoop artist Zenebech Kassa, Russian juggler Gena Cristiani, and Americans: acrobat Shenea Stiletto and pole dancer Donna Carnow, with live music by NYC’s sought-after DJ A-Ball.

Also in and around the Italian Circus Tent: Silent Disco – a total sell-out since the festival introduced it to Rochester in 2013 – will return for all four, weekend late-nights.

The vast majority of Fringe shows, however, were submitted in June by artists to festival venues, which then curated their own spaces. New venues include: Centerstage Theatre at the JCC (Dawn Lipson Canalside Stage & Hart Theatre); Made on State; The Spirit Room; The International Plaza; the new Sloan Performing Arts Center at the University of Rochester; and the Theatre at Innovation Square, the newly renovated Xerox Auditorium that will make its debut at Fringe. Returning venues are: Central Library, Eastman School of Music, Garth Fagan Dance, Java’s, Joseph Avenue Arts & Culture Alliance, MuCCC, RIT City Art Space, Rochester Contemporary, Rochester Music Hall of Fame, Salena’s, and The Little. A Virtual Fringe also returns this year, with 55 productions available on-demand as well as live-streamed.

“Not only are we providing a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills, which is our nonprofit’s overarching mission,” adds Fee, “but arts and culture provide healthy community cohesion as a result of shared experiences – something we all really need right now.”

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Media please note: If your outlet has not received press passes and would like them, please contact Fringe publicist Sally Cohen. Media should request reviewers’ tickets as soon as possible (please allow up to 72 hours for a reply) at tinyurl.com/rocfringepresstix21. Please check out our Fringe Media Guidelines. All Fringe press assets can be found at rochesterfringe.com/press.

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. and 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 Fringe as well as an open-access portion based on the 74-year-old Edinburgh Fringe model. Last year’s Virtual Fringe offered more than 170 online productions, connecting artists and audiences throughout our community and beyond. The 2019 Fringe featured more than 650 performances and events in 25+ downtown venues and broke all previous attendance records with more than 100,000 visitors.

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.

2021 sponsors include: KeyBank; New York State Council on the Arts; City of Rochester; University of Rochester; Monroe County; National Endowment for the Arts; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; Nocon & Associates; Waldron Rise; RIT; Konar Enterprises; Drs. Dawn and Jacques Lipson Enhancing Life Fund; Mary Mulligan Trust; Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; The Pike Company; Louis S. & Molly B. Wolk Foundation; VisitRochester; Fred & Floy Willmott Foundation; ESL Foundation; Aspire Transformation Services; Big Slide Creative; Hamilton A/V; Cheshire Audio Visual;13WHAM TV; CITY Newspaper; D&C Digital; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; WXXI; The Rubens Family Foundation; Hyatt Regency Rochester; McCarthy Tents & Events; Bond Schoeneck & King; Boylan Code; The Harley School; Wegmans; City Blue; Yelp; and Canandaigua National Bank.

About KeyBank: KeyBank’s roots trace back nearly 200 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 $181.1 billion at June 30, 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 more than 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. 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.