Fringe Announces 2022 Dates & Show Submission Dates

The Rochester Fringe Festival announces today that the 11th Fringe will take place Tuesday, September 13 through Saturday, September 24, 2022. Show submissions for the 12-day festival will open Wednesday, March 30 at noon ET via its website at rochesterfringe.com, closing five weeks later on Wednesday, May 4 at noon ET. During that time, artists and producers from all over the world may submit their show ideas directly to as many Fringe venues as desired for free. Participating venues will be announced prior to March 30th.

"We are excitedly planning this year's festival and looking forward to celebrating the arts and the much-needed community connection they provide," says Founding Festival Producer Erica Fee.

Despite everchanging COVID-19 protocols, last year's 10th Anniversary Fringe was a leader in safely reopening the performing arts in Western New York, with almost 90% of its more than 425 performances and events taking place in-person.

From its five-day debut in 2012, the Rochester Fringe Festival has become one of the fastest-growing and most-attended fringe festivals in the U.S. and the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival in New York State. As a bifurcated festival, it allows for a combination of headline entertainment curated by the Fringe as well as an open-access portion based on the 75-year-old Edinburgh Fringe model. 2020's Virtual Fringe offered more than 170 online productions, connecting artists and audiences throughout our community and beyond. The 2019 Fringe featured more than 650 performances and events in 25+ downtown venues and broke all previous attendance records with more than 100,000 visitors.

Rochester Fringe Festival connects and empowers artists, audiences, venues, educational institutions, and the community to celebrate, explore, and inspire creativity via an annual, multi-genre arts festival. It was pioneered by several of Rochester's esteemed cultural institutions including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman Museum and Garth Fagan Dance; up-and-coming arts groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine; and higher-education partners such as the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. The not-for-profit organization's overarching mission is to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills while also offering unparalleled public access to the arts. It strives to be diverse and inclusive, and to stimulate downtown Rochester both culturally and economically.

2021 sponsors included: KeyBank; New York State Council on the Arts; City of Rochester; University of Rochester; Monroe County; National Endowment for the Arts; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; Nocon & Associates; Waldron Rise; RIT; Konar Enterprises; Drs. Dawn and Jacques Lipson Enhancing Life Fund; Mary Mulligan Trust; Elaine & Richard Wilson Foundation; Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; The Pike Company; Louis S. & Molly B. Wolk Foundation; VisitRochester; Fred & Floy Willmott Foundation; ESL Foundation; Aspire Transformation Services; Big Slide Creative; Hamilton A/V; Cheshire Audio Visual;13WHAM TV; CITY Newspaper; D&C Digital; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; WXXI; The Rubens Family Foundation; Hyatt Regency Rochester; McCarthy Tents & Events; Bond Schoeneck & King; Boylan Code; The Harley School; Wegmans; City Blue; Yelp; and Canandaigua National Bank.