FringeNYC announces First Sold Out Performances, Fest Starts Friday

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America, will present the 14th Annual Festival from August 13th - 29th, 2010. This year, the festival will present programming by 197 of the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies in 20 venues in Lower Manhattan. Attendance at last year's festival topped 75,000 people, making it New York's fifth largest cultural event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con). Among the nearly 200 productions being presented are 183 representing 18 US states as well as 14 international productions representing 12 countries. The festival presents works covering a wide range of disciplines including drama, comedy, dance, performance art, children's theater (FringeJr), outdoor
theater (FringeAlFrecso), spoken word, puppetry, improv, and multimedia.

Advance sales are on par with last year's sales, which were dramatically higher than ever before -- a spike that can easily be attributed to the rise of social media. " At only $15 per ticket, FringeNYC is one of Manhattan's few remaining bargains," notes festival Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy. Several productions have already sold out individual performances including: A Personal War, - Stories of the Mumbai Terror Attacks, Hip Hop High - The Musical, Gate B23, and Scared Skinny: A One (Hundred Pound Lighter) Woman Show. Other best-selling shows include: Veritas, The Twentieth Century Way, Platinum, Bunked, Richard 3, Uba Bounce, Open Heart, and For Kingdom & Fatherland.

In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. In its first 13 years FringeNYC has presented over 2100 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Japan, China, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting Switzerland's national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as "the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists." The festival has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional Theater Productions including Urinetown, Never Swim Alone,
Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, 21 Dog Years, Krapp 39, Dixie's Tupperware Party, Silence! The Musical, Matt & Ben, The Irish Curse, 666 and the current Off-Broadway productions of Tales From The Tunnel and Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party and as well as movies (WTC View) and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.

FringeNYC shows run 2pm - midnight weekdays and noon - midnight on weekends. Tickets are: $15 in advance beginning July 23 at www.FringeNYC.org or 866-468-7619; $18 at the door, subject to
availability. Discount passes for multiple shows ($70 for a Fiver Pass, $120 for a Flex Pass good for 10 shows, and $500 for an all-you-can-see Lunatic Pass) are also available. For more information
visit www.FringeNYC.org.