HAMILTON FRINGE FESTIVAL to Host Six Affinity Performances for Marginalized Communities

Hamilton Fringe Festival is excited to return next week with its 22nd festival, running July 15-26, 2026 with 400 performances over 50 shows at 16 venues, and 50+ outdoor events throughout the city. Hamilton Fringe is the largest theatre festival in the Greater Hamilton Area, lighting up spaces across town with live theatre, music, dance, comedy, drag, visual art, film, and family friendly fare. 

Hamilton Fringe will once again host Fringe Boulevard on King William Street at James Street North. With music, dance, market vendors, drag, film, painting, and performance, it's the living, beating heart of the festival – and all programming is FREE. This pedestrian-friendly hub will be filled with free programming including Neechie Boulevard, an entire day dedicated to Indigenous programming on July 18, fully dreamed up and realized by Indigenous community members and curated by Grace Lamarche, Tara Sky, and Jordan Carrier.

Affinity Performances at Hamilton Fringe Festival include:
Affinity Performances or Affinity Nights are performance dates designated for audience members who share a particular identity or identities.

Hope & Joy

Saturday July 18th @ 1:45pm
Theatre Aquarius Studio
Disability and LGBTQIA+ communities are invited for a Q&A in the Theatre Aquarius lobby after the show.
Hope & Joy is an inter-abled theatre duo starring Krystal Hope, a woman who has Down syndrome and Morgan Joy, a woman who doesn't. This show confronts and honours the beauty, the frustration and the comedy of living with another person, disability or not.

Wheel and Turn

Saturday July 18th @ 5:00pm
The Westdale
Black Out Night is an invitation for Black audience members to take up space, celebrate the Afro-Caribbean arts and culture of Wheel and Turn, and connection with the theatremaking process. There will be a Q&A and special sharing at a nearby location after the performance. Check out this semi-autobiographical musical play written by and featuring award-winning author Nadia L. Hohn, writer Kevin heronJones, and Jamaican songstress, Olivia Carter.

Karl the Cat and the Junkyard Pack

Sunday July 19th @ 4:30pm
The Staircase | Bright Room
Playdough Productions is a queer-led theatre company. This Affinity performance is for all 2SLGBTQIA+ community members and their friends and family. Karl is an adventurous cat, exploring the garbage peaks and demolished cars of their junkyard home, but they struggle with figuring out their purpose.
 

Bilguisa Speaks Up

Saturday July 25th @ 5:15pm
Backroom @ Ringside
New Harlem Productions invites Black audiences to be celebrated, elevated, liberated at the July 25 Affinity Performance. Bilguisa and her sister are going to play the beautiful game - if they can pass a gender challenge from the opposing team.

Victoria Schneider: Verified

Sunday July 26th @ 12pm
The Westdale
This Affinity Performance is centred on 2SLGBTQ+, transfemme, and sex worker communities, as well as allies, advocates, and those engaged in harm reduction and social justice work. Based on a true story, Victoria Schneider: Verified follows a trans woman and sex worker who fought back against police abuse - and won.

Doug Ford, We Won't Touch the Greenbelt

Sunday July 26th @ 3:00pm
Mills Hardware
The affinity performance is for the First Nations and LGBTQ communities. Ontario premier Doug Ford turns the Greenbelt into development, taking away anything that is green.

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