History of Fringe Theatre Festivals
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (founded 1947) is the largest arts festival in the world. Though many shows at the Edinburgh Fringe could be considered fringe theatre, its remit also covers mainstream theatre, comedy, music and many other genres.
The largest fringe festival in the southern hemisphere, and second largest in the world, is the Adelaide Fringe Festival. The Adelaide Fringe evolved in the early 1970s as a reaction against the establishment and the then 'mainstream' Adelaide Festival of Arts. Today, although the two events are now inextricably linked, the Fringe Festival has overtaken the main Festival of Arts in terms of attendance. The oldest fringe festival in England, and third largest in the world is the Brighton Festival Fringe, which has provided Fringe activity alongside the main Brighton Festival since its creation in 1967.
Read more about this topic: Fringe Theatre
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—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
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“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air: the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
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—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)