Roll On Summer Says Buxton Festival Fringe!

Buxton Festival Fringe organisers are urging performers to forget winter and think ahead to next summer's sizzling event.

The Fringe will run from 6 to 24 July 2011, but Fringe entrants can make their application online from Wednesday December 1, when the recently redesigned Fringe website http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk goes live for entries. Performers and exhibitors will be able to find out all the details they need, including advice on venues, on the updated Entrants' Info section. It has never been easier to enter the Fringe - entrants can fill in the form online and also pay online.

Says Fringe chair Stephanie Billen: 'The Fringe continues to go from strength, with 2010 once again showing an increase in participants from the previous year.,To help entrants, we've frozen entry fees for the third year - from December 1st 2010 until February 28th 2011 you only pay £45. From March 1st to 31st the entry fee is £65 and from April 1st to 24th (the strict and final deadline for the printed programme) it is £80 - so the earlier you enter, the cheaper it is.'

(If entrants wish to perform at the managed venue Underground Venues, they may need to work to earlier deadlines - please consult their website for further details.)

The Fringe does not select or censor and entries traditionally come from a wide variety of the arts including music, drama, visual arts, dance, film, comedy as well as workshops, walks and talks.

Stephanie adds: Absolutely anyone can enter the Fringe, from professional theatre companies and comedians trying out material for Edinburgh, to new performers such as Burbage Primary, who entered for the first time in 2010 and ended up winning a Fringe award.'

If you're keen to support the Fringe, but, perhaps, don't want to take an active part in the Festival itself, how about becoming a Fringe Friend? Annual Fringe Friend membership runs from June 1 so when the Fringe is over, half price membership of £5 (£7.50 for joint membership) is offered. Sign up now to support the Fringe and receive invitations to Friends events during the year plus discounts for Buxton Film and special offers from the University of Derby Buxton.

The Fringe remains grateful to its main sponsor, the University of Derby Buxton as well as supporters including Trevor Osborne of the Crescent Spa Hotel Project, the Old Hall and High Peak Borough Council, for enabling it to keep entry fees low at this time of economic recession.

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