The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest arts festival, which in 2018 spanned 25 days and featured more than 55,000 performances of 3,548 different shows in 317 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the month of August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to its historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale..
The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival, held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, it features more than 7,000 artists from around Australia and the world. Over 1,300 events are staged in hundreds of venues, which include work in a huge variety of performing and visual art forms. The Fringe begins with free opening night celebrations, and other free events occur alongside ticketed events for the duration of the festival.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starting in March and running through to April. The Melbourne Town Hall has served as the festival hub since the early 1990s, but performances are held in many venues throughout the city.
Tripod are an Australian musical comedy trio founded by Scod, Yon and Gatesy in 1996. They provide original songs and harmonies, strung together by comic banter.
Midsumma is Victoria's premier queer arts and cultural organisation, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences. The primary event, Midsumma Festival, usually runs over 22 days in Melbourne's summer (January/February) with an explosion of queer events that center around both hidden and mainstream queer culture, involving local, interstate and international artists. The festival program comprises a curated Midsumma Presents program plus the community-driven Open-access stream, and is made up of diverse art forms and genres, including visual arts, live music, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, film, parties, sport, social events, and public forums. In addition to the primary festival in summer, Midsumma works year-round to provide artists, social-changers and culture-makers with support and tools to create, present and promote their work.
David Branson was an Australian theatre director, actor, and writer.
The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum is an art and cultural hub in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1839, it is the city's oldest cultural institution.
The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne.
Melbourne International Arts Festival was a major international arts festival and celebration of dance, theatre, music, circus, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia. The festival ran from 1986 to 2019, when it was announced a new festival, later named Rising, would take its place.
John Pinder was a New Zealand-born Australian comedy producer and festival director who produced band performances, ran live venues and co-founded three Australian comedy festivals, including Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Circus Oz.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the performing arts in Australia, or produced by Australians. There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to a number of Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the corroboree. During its colonial period, Australian theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have over the last two centuries introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.
A spiegeltent is a large travelling tent, constructed from wood and canvas and decorated with mirrors and stained glass, intended as an entertainment venue. Originally built in Belgium during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, only a handful of these spiegeltents remain in existence today, and these survivors continue to travel around Europe and beyond, often as a feature attraction at various international arts festivals. Two tents used by Teatro ZinZanni have been in fixed locations in Seattle and San Francisco for several years. The Melba Spiegeltent spent the better part of a century touring Europe, but is now permanently located in Melbourne, Australia. The Famous Spiegeltent, built in 1920, is now owned by Australian jazz piano player David Bates.
The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades the immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural cities.
Next Wave is a biennial festival based in Melbourne, which promotes and showcases the work of young and emerging artists. Next Wave encourages interdisciplinary practice and fosters the creation and presentation of works by emerging artists working across a broad range of art forms, including dance, theatre, visual arts, performance, new media, and literature.
Hannah Gadsby is an Australian comedian, writer, actress and television presenter. She rose to prominence after winning the national final of the Raw Comedy competition for new comedians in 2006, and has since toured internationally as well as appearing on television and radio.
Frisky & Mannish is a British musical comedy double act, created and performed by singer Laura Corcoran and pianist-singer Matthew Floyd Jones. Known for their pop music parodies, the duo have toured the fringe festival and comedy festival circuits in the United Kingdom and Australia, and appeared on a number of British television and radio programmes. The act's name derives from two incidental characters mentioned in one couplet of Byron's Don Juan: "Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Maevia Mannish, / Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish"
A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world. Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.
Fringe World, formerly Fringe World Festival, is an annual multi-arts fringe festival held in Perth, Western Australia during the city's summer festival season of January/February. Fringe World is recognised as the third largest fringe in the world. The 2020 Festival recorded an attendance of over 820,000 from ticketed and non-ticketed events and had an estimated economic impact of over $100 million.
Red Bennies was an internationally celebrated Australian performing arts and live music neo-cabaret cocktail bar, situated on Melbourne's south side entertainment strip of Chapel St, South Yarra. It was founded by hospitality entrepreneur Garrath Holt, promoter and film maker Christopher H.F. Mitchell. and Artistic Director and Arts Marketer, Alexander Schoeffel joining shortly after.
Dan Willis is an Australia-based English comedian, originally studying and then working in information technology for over 12 years before moving into live stand-up comedy after the IT crash of 2002. Since then, Willis has performed over 2,000 times at comedy venues and festivals throughout the world, as well as live stand-up. He also performs 2 specialist computer comedy shows "Control-Alt-Delete" and "PC Mac and me".
