Enjoy the Fringe for Free!

PRESS RELEASE 10th June 2013

For immediate release

Many events at the Buxton Festival Fringe (July 3-21) are absolutely free and for the first time they have been grouped together on the Fringe website http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk to make them easier to pick out.

The 34th Festival Fringe kicks off the night before on 2 July with a launch party hosted by Underground Venues in the atmospheric vaults of the Old Hall Hotel, including preview performances, games and fun - not to mention Fringe Beer, this year provided by Buxton Brewery and available in a variety of town pubs.

The fun continues with Fringe Sunday at the Pavilion Gardens on July 7 with free performances from this year's acts. The Fringe will also be out and about on its orange float on carnival day and will also host the annual Fringe Awards Ceremony (open to Fringe Friends and by invitation) at the Dome, home of the Fringe sponsor, the University of Derby Buxton.

This year every event in the Visual Arts category is free. A huge variety of visual art mediums is displayed in diverse exhibition spaces ranging from bookshops and galleries to park railings.

Suzanne Pearson explores walking through local landscapes in 100 Steps through the landscape at Scrivener's Bookshop stairway. Buxton Museum and Art Gallery's eagerly awaited Derbyshire Open shows works on a Derbyshire theme by professional and amateur artists and an incredible 65 Peak District Artisans return to the Great Dome Art Fair, which includes free talks and demonstrations through the weekend.

Also at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Tony Hall makes a direct connection between what is seen and what is drawn in From Life and Sue Prince presents Painted Tales, inspired by the Swedish folk art, bonadsmÄlning (painting decorative wall hangings.

For children, try a quiz at the Burbage Institute, where the Burbage Art Group offers collages, watercolours, oils and pastels, with free cakes and refreshments on July 20; or a drop-in workshop at the Pavilion Gardens Art Café as part of High Peak Artists' Amazing Landmarks and Legends exhibition of painting, print and photography. The Buxton Art Trail, this year exhibiting around the Pavilion Gardens provides an opportunity to make art with contemporary artists.

New Fringe venue, the Green Man Gallery, has an unusual exhibition from stone & water, Ancient Landscapes, using crochet and felt to explore the corals and crinoids of the Peak District from a time before the dinosaurs. A stone & water workshop, Knitting a New Landscape will provide the opportunity to join the artists. Throughout the Fringe the gallery also hosts' It's Not Easy Being Green and the natural theme continues in Louise Jannetta's exhibition, The Colour of the Woods, concentrating on patterns and textures to play with light.

The streets will be alive with more music, magic, dance, children's fun and street theatre than ever before. St John Street Theatre Company, a hit at Ashleyhay and Wirksworth local festivals, performs a lively farce, I Don't Call That Art in the Pavilion Gardens while outside the Opera House the Shakespeare Jukebox allows festival-goers to select their choice of Shakespeare's works.

Finally there is an international flavour with world food, local beers and street entertainment at the Food and Drink Festival at the Pavilion Gardens on July 12, an exciting new initiative.

Says Fringe chair Stephanie Billen: 'We want the Fringe to be accessible as possible so I'm delighted to see so many free events. Some of these typify the eclectic nature of the Fringe whether it's the Macmillan Cancer Information Bus in Spring Gardens or crocheted prehistoric landscapes at The Green Man Gallery.'

The Fringe is hugely grateful to its many supporters including its main sponsor The University of Derby Buxton as well as The Osborne Group, High Peak Borough Council, The Old Hall Hotel and The Cavendish Shopping Arcade.

For further information or interviews about the Fringe Send message to Press or tel: 07974 385767.