What is the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival?

Posted at: 09/12/2012 9:08 AM | Updated at: 09/12/2012 8:56 PM
By: Janet Lomax | WHEC.com

Rochester has a lot of festivals -- we celebrate flowers, music, neighborhoods, food -- we have them all. Now add one more arts festival.

This one is a first and it focuses on the fringe. It kicks off a week from Wednesday and there are hundreds of things to choose from all in the span of five days.

News10NBC will be putting the spotlight on some of the acts you'll see at the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Fest.

Dancers dangling off the roofs of downtown buildings -- you can't be afraid of heights if you're a part of Project Bandaloop.

This San Francisco-based dance company dances on buildings. In Rochester, they'll use the 21-story HSBC Plaza building as their aerial stage.

Bandaloop is just one of 120 acts that will put on 180 performances during the five-day Fringe Fest.

Erica Fee is overseeing this controlled creative chaos. “We have all sorts of things that people can see at the upcoming festival – theatre, comedy, music, visual arts, dance, children’s’ entertainment.”

Janet Lomax sat down with Fee who knows a thing or two about Fringe Fests. There are 20 of them in the United States and 200 around the world. The oldest and largest – the Edinburgh Fringe Fest in Scotland.

Fee says, “Their festival is 30 days. Last year it saw 2,500 shows and there were more than 41,000 performances so we're tiny in comparison.”

Edinburgh got its start in 1947 when several artists were turned away from a major art show. They set up their own -- on the fringes -- and their show eclipsed the show.

Rochester’s may be smaller but Fee says it is packed with all types of artistic performances and that's why they are so popular. “What’s exciting about a Fringe Festival is that you can make your own day, you can make your own programming and you can sample all sorts of art all within the same day.”

Put on your walking shoes -- the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Fest will be held in Rochester’s East End downtown.

There are two festival hubs -- Manhattan Square Park and Gibbs Street.

The First Niagara Fringe Festival runs September 19 through September 23. Click here for ticket, venue and performance information.
 

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