By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

The Edmonton Fringe, our beloved summer theatre festival, has announced it’s in crisis. And the community that this the oldest and biggest of the continent’s fringe festivals has done so much to enhance and enliven, needs to step up and help in this financial emergency.

As announced Monday by Fringe Theatre’s executive director Megan Dart, the Fringe is launching a campaign to ensure the Fringe’s sustainability, vitality, and identity, in short its future, at a moment when all of the above are in doubt. ““Rest assured the 43rd annual (edition of the) Edmonton Fringe will take place this year (Aug. 15 to 25),” says Dart. “And we’re committed to sustaining our impact. But without immediate support, the festival we know and love will look very different.”

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As she points out, “when you buy a ticket to a Fringe show you are supporting the work of the artist onstage. And we are so proud to return 100 per cent of the ticket price back to the artist,” says Dart of a $1.2 million return to artists last summer. “However that doesn’t offset the costs of producing the festival … the stages, lights, sound, professional technicians, the engaged audiences. “Artists who perform on Fringe stages receive more than $10,000 in support.”

“We honour the role we play in supporting artists and building the creative economy across Canada.” But the festival is up against “a confluence of factors,” says Dart. The hard costs of producing the festival are up up up at every level; they’ve more than doubled in the last couple of years. “Insurance is up 45 per cent; utilities are through the roof,” as we all know. And at the same time funding for the festival at every level of government is either frozen or actually dwindling. The Fringe, says Dart, is looking at a 20 per cent cut in funding from Canadian Heritage, for example, “back to 2015 levels.” And COVID recovery support, via grants, has generally expired.

The situation is exacerbated by the COVIDian cancellation of the festival in 2020, with an attendant loss of $3 million in revenue that has proven daunting to recoup so far.

Dart is hoping that in the face of more than $16 million in the Fringe’s local economic impact every year, the business community will rise to the occasion with sponsorships, and partnerships (“they can be custom-made”). The Fringe is calling on Fringe patrons and ticket-buyers to donate and to volunteer. And to pledge $5 a month. “If the 20,000 subscribers to Fringe fan club newsletter did that,” for example, “the festival would immediately become sustainable.”

The post-pandemic economic crisis, coupled with inflationary pressures, is industry-wide, as Dart notes. Just For Laughs in Montreal is in receivership. The Shaw Festival, announcing its largest deficit ever, is facing cuts.

Similar campaigns have been launched by the Toronto and Vancouver Fringes. And both of those festivals have reduced the size of their events. The Vancouver Fringe, for example, will have only two-thirds the number of shows of last summer.

“We’re not reducing the number of shows,’ says Dart of the upcoming edition of the Edmonton Fringe. “But, realistically, if nothing changes, the site will be smaller, for one thing.” And the critical mass that goes into Edmonton’s massive theatre celebration, one of the sources of both its healthy and vibrancy, will be much reduced.

“This is crunchy reality for us.” The civic impact of our Fringe, Edmonton’s brightest idea ever, has been transformative. The moment is at hand to ensure that this can continue.

To offer support, visit fringetheatre.ca/sustain or email give@fringetheatre.ca.