By Sarah Sussman
One of Calgary’s favourite summer offerings, the Fringe Fest is a grassroots theatre festival that sees 160 local, national and international performances every year in August. At its root, fringes are uncensored and non-juried festivals that give full creative control to the artists and performers. Here are five unexpected venues hosting shows from August 4 to 10. [Photo credit: 73 Seconds/Calgary Fringe Festival]
Fair’s Fair Books in Inglewood has been a Calgary landmark for book lovers since its opening in 1988, selling and buying books from Calgarians for decades.
This year, Fair’s Fair Books plays host to an interactive experience called Booked In, Booked Off, Booked Out performed by Calgary’s own chiMOchiMO immersive theatre. Written by Cherie Ratte (who also directed the performance) and Kent Pigott, this immersive experience takes audience members into a fully interactive hour-long journey around the bookstore as the book’s characters come to life and Fair’s Fair transforms into an interactive library. The performance runs daily at 7 p.m. for the duration of the festival. Tickets are $15 and are available for purchase online.
One of the most important institutions in the Calgary arts community, Artpoint Gallery is an artist-run non-profit studio and gallery located in the heart of the Ramsay-Inglewood area.
Artpoint hosts several evening performances over the duration of the festival. For attendees itching for edgy political commentary, check out Los Angeles comedian DK Reinemer’s comedy sketch performance of Help! I’m American!. This hour-long one-man show delivers a hilarious high-energy performance, during which DK will admit that he definitely wishes he was Canadian. Tickets are $15 and available for purchase online.
Another highly anticipated performance, Australian performer-playwright Lana Schwarcz presents a deeply personal and comedic account of her breast cancer experience in Lovely Lady Lump. The 75-minute performance combines Lana’s hilarious storytelling with performance art and one massive middle finger flipped at cancer. Tickets are $15 and are available for purchase online.
At the end of the festival, the most popular showing performance at Artpoint (as determined by the audience and media) will get its own grand finale Best of Fest 2017 showing August 12.
This Inglewood nightlife standard is known for its insanely good blues live music line-up and its adventurous menu of Southern eats and treats. From August 7 to 11, the Blues Can hosts a hilarious 18+ improv series called Improv Against Humanity. Using the popular party game Cards Against Humanity as their starting point, Go 4 Broke Productions delivers a highly offensive series of improvised scenes that’ll both shock and entertain you over the lunch and dinner hours. Tickets are $12 and are available for purchase online.
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Discover more ways to have fun in and around Calgary:
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Located on Eau Claire Market’s main level food court area (directly across from Jugo Juice), the Inkubator Theatre is a special pop up venue that’s been made specifically for Fringe Fest this year. Watch London, U.K. performer and master storyteller Gerard Harris star in his self-directed and self-written Gerard Harris: A Tension to Detail or take in the gripping drama of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster during Portal Theatre’s performance of 73 Seconds.
For anyone still riding out the Canada 150 wave, make sure you check out Ryan Gladstone and Bruce Horak’s performance of The Canada Show: The Complete History of Canada in One Hour! Performed by Monster Theatre, this show is an hour-long history lesson without all the boring stuff – with singing involved, too. Tickets are $15 and are available for purchase online.
Located in the heart of Inglewood, the Inglewood Lawn Bowling Club is a hidden gem institution that’s served as the heart of Calgary’s lawn bowling community. The club started off as a hangout spot for a group of CPR employees who wanted a place to spend time in during their off-duty hours. When they finally outgrew their space, the CPR employees built a new facility at the club’s current location in Inglewood. In 1996, four Calgary firemen took it upon themselves to revitalize the club and restore the heart and soul to the lawn bowling community.
In 2015, the club opened its brand new all-season facility, which will play host to Fringe Fest’s 2017 Fringe Weekend Beatnik Clubhouse beer gardens. The official festival hang-out spot (complete with cheap alcoholic beverages) is the spot to brush shoulders with festival performers and make friendly with your fellow Calgary fringe fans.
Get out on the town and enjoy these popular Calgary spaces transformed into theatre and performance venues! Note that a Fringe Button is required for festival show admission and are available for purchase at the festival’s information booth as well as at all participating venues.
