Sydney Fringe Festival have shared the first 2023 programme highlights, along with revealing a bold new move for the event.
As New South Wales' largest independent arts festival, Sydney Fringe Festival has built a solid reputation for bringing diversity into the arts calendar each year, boasting over 450 events in more than 70 venues across Greater Sydney every September – and no two acts are ever the same.The full 2023 programme will be revealed closer to the event, which runs for the full month of September this year.
For now, organisers have highlighted a new hub in Moore Park's Entertainment Quarter, which will house the Spiegeltent Festival Garden.
The Sydney Spiegeltent will host the local debut of 'The Marvellous Elephant Man The Musical' – an all-singing, all-dancing Australian-made ode to the story of Joseph Merrick, the so-called 'elephant man'.
Also landing at EQ for Sydney Fringe is 300-seat circus dome The Vault, where comedy-acrobats Headfirst Acrobatics will bring the biggest party to hit Mount Olympus since 500 BCE, in their multi 5-Star reviewed show 'GODZ'.
"Over the last ten years as demand has grown from our artists, we've looked further afield and created festival hubs and gardens like the one at EQ this year," Festival Director Kerri Glasscock says.
"We are Sydney's festival; we are for everybody. And if we truly want to be for everybody, then we need to be as far afield as we can be. We want artists to be able to perform in their local areas, to their local audiences."
Other highlights of the first announcement include the opening night party Fringe Ignite and the return of pop-up musical theatre club Lola's Piano Bar in The Rocks.
There'll be free singer-songwriter performances for Acoustic Ritual in George Place in the CBD; an AI-generated art block party down the street at Sydney Place; Young Henrys' Best Served Loud live music series hitting Parramatta for the first time; and the closing party in Kensington Street in Chippendale, which will feature a line-up of around 50 performers celebrating Caribbean culture as picó collective El Gran Mono takes over the city's most eclectic eat street.
The festival also released an impact report about the 2022 event, which found that last year's festival generated over $36 million in economic impact for the city of Sydney, selling over $2 million worth of tickets and reaching an audience of more than 75,000 people, which produced over 400 full-time jobs.
"Each year Sydney Fringe Festival has gone from strength to strength, hosting big international names and nurturing local talent," Glasscock says.
"Over my ten years as Festival Director and CEO, I've seen Sydney Fringe Festival develop into a world-class event and I'm so proud of what our community has created.
"Globally recognised for our unique festival model, we've established game-changing activations and pilot projects that have driven lasting change within the city, and this new report is evidence of the vital role Fringe and our local artists play in Sydney's economy."
Sydney Fringe Festival 2023 take place at various locations 1-30 September. Stay tuned for the complete 2023 programme to be revealed in the coming months.
Explore the 2023 programme revealed so far.
