Orlando Fringe Celebrates Successful Virtual Festival

Orlando Fringe closed the virtual curtain on Fringe Today, the organization's online event that replaced the annual event that occurs in and around Loch Haven Park every May. COVID-19 caused festival organizers to cancel The 29th Annual Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival in March.

Fringe Today occurred entirely online and spanned fourteen days. The event kicked off with a virtual ribbon cutting with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, City Commissioners Stuart and Sheehan, as well as Fringe staff members, sponsors, and board members.

Orlando Fringe Theatre Producer, Lindsay Taylor, developed the idea for Fringe Today, from a desire to fill the void left from the cancellation of the physical festival. Mayor Dyer said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, "Arts play such a crucial role in our community and have gone through a lot. Arts are always part of our recovery."

During Fringe Today, patrons could watch performances from Fringe Artists, some of whom have never performed in Orlando. In addition to the staged performances, the schedule had instructional demonstrations, live games, interviews with beloved Fringe performers, a meeting with other Fringe festivals worldwide, and even a man dressed as a gorilla sitting in a rocking chair for almost an hour. Kids Fringe, the kid-friendly arm of Orlando Fringe, presented an hour of programming each day with popular kids performers like Mr. Richard, Music with Mar, and ChaChing the Bunny. Visual Fringe hosted segments with visual artists that held painting classes, gave gallery tours, and demonstrated digital character sculpting.

"Fringe is always a space where we leave our troubles behind and just have fun, or maybe we spend an hour having someone give us a slideshow presentation on their troubles," adds Dyer. "Both are more important now than ever... I couldn't be more proud of our community, figuring out how to do the things that make Orlando Orlando. Certainly, the Fringe Festival is exactly that."

Orlando Fringe announced their Fringe Today programming brought in 40,765 views. True to the festival's community spirit, the organization recorded over 3,400 comments during their live video broadcasts, showing that audiences were engaged and happy to be a part of this new type of festival.

"This pandemic may change the way we do things, but it is not going to change who we are or change the fact that our stories must still be heard," said Orlando Fringe Executive Director Alauna Friskics.

Orlando Fringe said they were happy with the response to their online event and discuss plans to offer more events like this in the future to bring the arts into the homes of the public.