The Atlanta Fringe Festival Returns For 7th Year

The Atlanta Fringe Festival's 7th annual installment will be its biggest and most ambitious outing yet, with 23 performance groups from around the country putting up live theatre, dance, comedy, storytelling and more across six venues throughout four jam-packed days. This year's festival will also, for the first time, feature a free outdoor stage for family-friendly shows and activities, a variety benefit featuring local Atlanta talent, and live performances by some of the three dozen audio artists whose work will be available exclusively at AtlantaFringe.org. There's something for everyone at this year's festival, which takes place from June 3-9 at venues in and around Little Five Points.

"We're excited to be putting up so much great stuff for year 7. Adding the Five/5ths fundraiser and an outdoor stage allows us to give even more local performers a chance to shine, in addition to welcoming artists from all over the United States," says Executive Director Diana Brown. "We've grown every year and seen such increased love and support from this community. It just feels great to be in a place where we can do all of things we've been dreaming about since Year One."

The 23 companies from 9 different states that make up this year's line up were chosen, per festival tradition, via a completely unjuried lottery - literally pulled out of a hat from a pool of 130 global submissions. As in years past, the 7th Atlanta Fringe Festival will boast live performances from across the theatrical spectrum, from avant garde dance to sketch comedy to solo storytelling to heavily-costumed performance art troupes. Festival artists will be eligible for cash prizes for the favorite shows in various categories as selected by the audience, staff and a panel of judges from the Atlanta arts community.

This year's festival will take place in traditional and converted performing spaces in and around Little Five Points, including 7 Stages, the Highland Ballroom, The Marianna at Wrecking Bar Brewpub, the Church at Ponce & Highland, and the International Montessori Academy.

In addition to the live performance core of the festival, there are some great extra features:

FREE family-friendly performances at Springvale Park. These will feature live music, clowning, aerial performances, and more, with workshops by the Center for Puppetry Arts. This outdoor stage will be open daily, Thursday June 6 through Sunday June 9 starting at 3:00 PM. Concessions, food trucks, and King of Pops will be available onsite.

FREE preview performance at 7 Stages. All 23 shows will get 3 minutes each to wow the audience at 7 Stages, Wednesday June 5 at 8:00 PM. This is a great way to get to know all the artists and is usually a standing-room-only event.

Benefit show - Five/5ths of The Princess Bride. The Festival kicks off by chopping up the classic movie The Princess Bride into five parts and having them interpreted by five very different Atlanta performance troupes. This benefit performance will take place Monday June 3 at 8:00 PM at 7 Stages.

FREE Fringe Audio Listening Party. Get to know some of the artists featured in Fringe's exclusive audio podcasting network in this event at the Highland Ballroom, Tuesday June 4 from 7-9:00 PM.

In addition to the live performances, the Atlanta Fringe will once again feature their audio component: Fringe Audio. The only podcasting network of its kind on the fringe circuit, Fringe Audio will feature pieces of storytelling and radio theatre, most of them world premieres, submitted by local and national artists. The shows will be available for streaming via AtlantaFringe.org from Memorial Day (May 27) through June 16 and will be completely free, with a $100 cash prize offered to the show with the most listens on the podcasting platform.

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