Melbourne Fringe’s Big Three-0

By Tan May Ling on 9th September, 2012

Celebrating its 30 years birthday in independent arts, Melbourne Fringe Festival is back in the city.

Since 1982, Melbourne Fringe Festival was established after the closure of Carlton’s legendary Pram Factory. The arts festival has supported more than fifty thousand artists. The festivals also presented various forms of arts genres, from circus, dance, design, visual art, comedy, music, and sideshow. All held in several hundreds of venues all across Melbourne.

People attending the 30 Years of Independence 

and Arts party posing for 

photo-shoot in the photo booth – 

Photo by Melbourne Fringe Festival Facebook

Melbourne Fringe Festival began with parades in Brunswick Street and rapidly evolved into a significant cultural event, attracting hundreds of thousands of audiences. People from all around Melbourne or Victoria would come and gather at the arts festival, to celebrate arts, exclusively independent arts.

“Melbourne Fringe used to be very well-known in the past but it had toned down a bit if you compare the current Melbourne Fringe to the past Melbourne Fringe,” said Eugene Wong, who is one of the organizers for A Tale of Two Melbournes.

Despite the decrease of popularity in comparison with the past, Melbourne Fringe Festival still attracts many locals and a number of travellers or tourists. It is the second largest Fringe Festival held in Australia after Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Running from 26 September to 14 October 2012, Melbourne Fringe has provided a space for local artists to come out with wild, bold and creative art ideas and presenting them to everyone in Melbourne.

The venues for the festival are not just concentrated on North Melbourne, instead, it spread from the Fringe Hub in North Melbourne to every corner of the city with at least 300 events, performance and exhibitions for everyone to explore.

According to Leena Nair, an international student in Melbourne, advertisement about Melbourne Fringe Festival can be found all over the Melbourne City.

Advertisement of Fringe Festival on tram - photo by 

Melbourne Fringe Festival Facebook

“I found out about the festival from numerous posters, and flyers placed all over the city, in particular when I was out with friends in Brunswick Street, where every indie shops had a number of books and flyers with the events and parties of the festival readily available,” she said.

In the celebration of the 30 years anniversary, Melbourne Fringe organised competition to offer two people to fly from Adelaide to Melbourne for the festival. Apart from this, a party, “30 Years of Independence and Art” were thrown in North Melbourne Town Hall on last Friday night to celebrate with the people and artists that help keep the event alive and on-going for 30 years.

“I’ve enjoyed myself so much with the festival. It’s a great way to get out with friends or event meet new friends with similar interest, and to immerse yourself in and delight yourself with the arts,” Leena said.

Melbourne Fringe Festival is different from other international art festivals. Artists are given the opportunity to be creative, risky and experiment with their ideas. Popularity does not matter in here. For new artists like Debbie Harman, the artist for “Filling the Cracks with Conversation”, the festival is a good platform to present her work to the public as it helps to spread the words about her work.

“Melbourne Fringe is like a forum, where you can do anything. It gives artists like me, who want to try something different from the popular arts, a place to experiment our ideas,” she said.

With last year’s event brought in around 3400 artists and an increase to more than 4000 artists this year, Melbourne Fringe is one of the most significant cultural events on Melbourne calendar.

The festival is older than most of the major arts festivals in Melbourne and usually overlap with the beginning of Melbourne Festival.

(600 words)