Did you know we are a not-for-profit?

Established as a lean not-for-profit and operating with a nimble team of only seven full-time employees, in just 14 years Sydney Fringe has grown from being a small community event to now delivering the largest independent arts festival in NSW.

Photography Credit: Clare Hawley

Each year, our month-long festival provides a presentation platform for over 2500 artists to present, create, develop and perform new work. Around 75% of participating artists are from NSW and 37% of productions within the festival are world premieres, making Sydney Fringe one of the largest developers of new and NSW-made work. As an open-access festival, the program is created by artists resulting in a rich and diverse schedule of works by a wide cross-section of the sector.

Sydney artists find Fringe’s annual festival to be the only time they can perform, as Sydney has a severe lack of performing arts venues. This situation reflects a decade of systemic and structural issues, particularly a dropping supply of increasingly exclusive, curated, and pricey venues, in addition to a historically restrictive environment for activating space. It is anticipated that artists will face this problem for many years to come.

We have addressed these challenges by activating unused and under-utilised space to create new, vibrant creative precincts and art spaces, centred around festival hubs and non-ticketed satellite activities. We also subsidise artists’ work through absorbing production costs where possible and returning box office sales. This inherently imposes a significant financial strain on Sydney Fringe and we need all the support we can gather to make it a sustainable year-on-year event.

With an evidence-based proposition and heavily subsidised by one-off pandemic recovery support, in 2022 Sydney Fringe was able to extend its festival offering by procuring and delivering a highly visible Eastern Harbour activation, centred around the prestigious Spiegeltent, transforming the historic Rocks Precinct into a major festival hub in First Fleet Park. This was an awesome activation and we loved filling the precinct with sound, sights, circus and

We exist to put the independent cultural sector at the heart of Sydney. There is a lot more work to be done to secure that future and with the termination of one-off government support, it simply won’t be possible without the ongoing support of our donors, audiences, partners, stakeholders and of course, artists. A big thank you to all our supporters, we look forward to celebrating with you again soon.

Join us as one of Fringe Kind and be part of the Fringe folk responsible for creating the growth of a vibrant and diverse cultural activity.

First Nations

In recent years Fringe has undertaken a process of deep listening to First Nations people so we can best make space for First Nations artists an audiences to participate in the Fringe environment. First Nations voices are important to each and every one of us that calls this place home.

Open Access Model

Artists participating in our events come from all art forms, genres and levels of experience. As a not-for-profit, we need support to help facilitate emerging artists to create unique work.

Activating Space

Through your support we have been successful in activating unused and under-utilised space to create new, vibrant creative precincts and art spaces.