The ESL Rochester Fringe Festival will return Sept. 15-26 with 715 performances of 297 productions at 45 venues, marking the multidisciplinary arts festival's 15th season.
Tickets for all events went on sale Tuesday through the festival website and mobile app, with the lineup spanning comedy, circus, dance, music, theater, spoken word, visual arts and children's programming.
Comedian Pete Davidson will headline the festival at 8 p.m. Sept. 25 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Organizers also announced international acts, premieres and a new large-scale outdoor circus program.
Circus expands into city streets
Circus in the City will run throughout the 12-day festival and include outdoor performances, interactive experiences and themed food and beverages. The program is supported by a Market New York grant from Empire State Development and the state Division of Tourism.
The outdoor circus schedule will peak Sept. 18 and 19 during Friday and Saturday on the Fringe, with free performances in public spaces from Gibbs Street to Parcel 5.
Featured companies include Canada's Flip Fabrique with "Summer Break," Rochester Fringe veterans Aloft with "The Pieces," Big Teeth Collective with "Flotsam & Jetsam," Circus EVO with "Lost to Me" and New York City's 3AM Theatre.
The festival's Spiegeltent will host "A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Leaves" on Sept. 17, along with the cruise-ship murder mystery "Cirque du Fringe: Anchors Away."
French comedian Marcel Lucont will return with "Whine List" and a family show titled "Les Enfants Terribles: A Gameshow for Awful Children."
New stage, site-specific shows
The Garden Studio, a new performance space at One Fringe Place, will host intimate productions for audiences of up to 60 people. Its schedule includes Cam Porter's contemporary clown show "Just to Be Close to You," Jessica Crane's "Tea Party at the End of the World" and "Bushwhacked: Big Joy Fun Time Revival."
Site-specific productions will take audiences into cemeteries, parks, campers, storefront windows and other locations. "Invisible No More" will be staged at Mount Hope Cemetery, while "Forest Music" will take place in Washington Grove.
Other off-site productions include the environmental performance "EcoVibes – Oil and Water Don't Mix," the moving-car theater experience "Dashboard Dramas XII" and "ROC'ing the Streets," a free event featuring local artists and musicians in public spaces.
Family events and free programming
Kids Day returns Sept. 26 in the Spiegeltent and Parcel 5 with activities including chalk art, pumpkin painting and a regional breakdancing competition. Gospel Sunday is scheduled for Sept. 20 in the Spiegeltent.
Organizers said nearly one-quarter of the festival's performances are free. The festival has also worked with the Mary Cariola Center and Center for Disability Rights to assess venues for accessibility and inclusion.
Printed festival guides are expected at ESL branch locations in mid-August, as well as in the September issue of City Magazine. Tickets and the full schedule are available through the Rochester Fringe website and app.
The festival also said it has reached 84% of a $1.575 million fundraising campaign intended to purchase its Spiegeltent, support visiting artists, expand arts education and build reserves.
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