Minnesota Fringe Festival

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a performing arts festival held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, every summer, usually during the first two weeks in August. The eleven-day event, which features performing artists of many genres and disciplines, is one of many Fringe Festivals in North America. Minnesota Fringe is the largest nonjuried festival in the United States and the third-largest Fringe festival in North America. In 2011, Minnesota Fringe ran August 4-14 and featured 167 shows with a total of 865 performances in multiple venues around the city and distributed 48,432 tickets over the eleven-day event. In 2007, attendance and box office revenue were adversely affected by the collapse of the I-35W bridge the day before the festival opened.

Fringe shows are 60 minutes or less and appear in an official venue supplied by the festival for five performances stretched out over the festival's eleven days. Venues vary widely, with capacities ranging from 55 to over 400, and available configurations include black-box, proscenium, thrust or arena stages. Past venues include Minneapolis Theatre Garage, Mixed-Blood Theate mainstage, Theatre de la Jeune Lune's side stage and the four stages at the University of Minnesota's Rarig Center for Performing Arts. Normally, eleven shows will share a venue.

Performing companies that participate in the Fringe split a share of the ticket revenues with the festival and pay an application fee. Currently, the artists' share is 65 percent of the box office revenue.

The 2012 festival, scheduled for August 2-12, will mark the nineteenth annual festival. The current executive director is Robin C. Gillette, who came to the job after working as the marketing and community relations manager at Mixed Blood Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Fringe Festival is a founding member of United States Association of Fringe Festivals (USAFF).