Arizona Theatre Matters Announces The Glendale International Fringe Festival

Arizona Theatre Matters announced the Glendale International Fringe Festival, a two-week, curated international Fringe festival taking place February 12-28, 2027 in Historic Downtown Glendale and online.

GIFF will present 20 companies and offer every company the option of a 16-day run (one show per day, Feb 12-27) or a minimum three-performance engagement; closing day February 28 is reserved for awards and a festival celebration. All performances are free to attend in person and online.

"Accessibility is the way you make better work," said Jeanmarie Simpson, Founding Artistic Director, Arizona Theatre Matters. "GIFF is designed so artists and audiences with a wide range of needs shape the performances from the start. When access leads, the art changes for the better." - Jeanmarie Simpson, Founding Artistic Director, ATM

Patrick Reese, Festival Manager, added: "We built GIFF around two simple ideas: pay artists, and remove barriers for audiences. Making everything admission-free and fully accessible changes the work - and who gets to be part of it." - Patrick Reese, Festival Manager, ATM

GIFF will offer a curated program of 20 companies, each with the option of a 16-day run (one daily performance across Feb 12-27) or a compact 3-performance block.

There will be a daily rotation of performance times - every company will appear at noon, 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. as part of a fair four-day rotation so audiences and community partners see work at every time of day.

Hybrid by design, all shows will be presented live in downtown Glendale and livestreamed with free video-on-demand access. There will also be integrated accessibility for every performance: artistic ASL interpretation, open captions, audio description co-created with Blind artists, wheelchair-accessible venues and backstage routes, access-integration sessions for companies, trained ushers, sensory-friendly zones, and clear wayfinding - provided in person and on the livestream.

GIFF will also include artist-first economics. GIFF removes common financial barriers-no registration fees for participation, a modest application fee, and guaranteed artist compensation-so companies are remunerated while audiences attend for free.

GIFF is curated and produced from the ground up around universal design rather than being retrofitted; artists and audiences with access needs are centered as creative partners, making GIFF a practical model for inclusive festival design.

It offers a welcoming winter home for Fringe. Historic Downtown Glendale in February offers a compact, walkable festival district — lively restaurants, pubs, and shops — and an audience experience shaped by community hospitality. Most importantly: every performance is admission-free and fully ADA-accessible.

Schedule highlights include:

• Artist selection & curation: rolling evaluation beginning March 2026; final notifications in late 2026.

• Load-in & technical rehearsals: week of February 5, 2027, integrating ASL, captions, audio description, and accessibility systems.

• Festival: February 12-27, 2027 - daily performances; Feb 28, 2027 - Closing Celebration & Artist Awards.

GIFF grew from the realities of touring accessible work. While preparing a 2026 tour of Ghosts of the Gilded Stage, ATM repeatedly encountered venues that were not universally accessible - a glaring gap for artists and audiences. That stark experience, combined with Jeanmarie Simpson's early Fringe lessons (from the fraught San Francisco Fringe in 1996 to the grassroots tour of A Single Woman in 2005), led to a simple conclusion: Fringe can be both radical and inclusive. GIFF is the festival ATM wished had existed - a Fringe built for everyone, where artists are paid and audiences are welcome without barriers.