PRESS RELEASE For immediate release - May 17th 2018
Buxton Festival Fringe is celebrating another bumper Fringe with an open-to-all Programme Party at Buxton's The Green Man Gallery on Saturday June 2nd from 7-9pm.
The event will feature light refreshments and show extracts from Fringe performers. Charismatic singer Egriega, award-winning comic improvisers The Shrimps and irrepressible Spoken Word stars The Glummer Twins have already signed up. The evening will also offer a chance to pick up a Fringe programme hot off the press and to sign up as a Fringe Friend for offers and invitations throughout the year as well as 10% off ticket prices.
Buxton Festival Fringe (July 4-22) boasts 181 entrants and its biggest ever Comedy section. The Theatre category, with 56 shows, has also never been bigger. Traditionally a platform for the stars of tomorrow, the Fringe is also providing a welcoming space for the celebrities of today with this year’s event including appearances from actor Rula Lenska, Australian singer Seann Miley Moore (X Factor) and comedian/actor Rob Rouse (BBC Two’s Upstart Crow).
Now in its 39th year, the biggest UK Fringe between Edinburgh and Brighton takes place between July 4 and 22 in parallel with the Buxton International Festival and features substantial Theatre, Comedy and Music sections as well as Dance, Film, For Families, Spoken Word, Street Theatre, Film, Visual Arts and more in venues ranging from a state-of-the-art theatre to an ancient cavern!
Comedy and Theatre have seen the biggest increase in numbers this year with performers seeing it as part of the Brighton-Buxton-Edinburgh circuit. Look out for Australian stand up Adam Vincent, award-winning spinster agony aunt Ms Samantha Mann, The Big Fat Running Show, punster Darren Walsh, Hancock impressionist James Hurn, Covent Garden’s Mike Raffone, award-winning physical comedians The Kagools, Nathan and Ida from The Dead Secrets, Fringe favourite Nathan Cassidy, Owen Roberts of The Beasts, award-winning Harriet Braine, Upstart Crow’s Rob Rouse and many more rib-ticklers.
Theatre treats include new writing from award-winning James Beagon in Antigone Na H’Eireann; X Factor’s Seann Miley Moore in Guy, a musical from the award-winning Marriage of Kim K team; mask and puppet theatre from Helenandjohn; Rob Rouse and Helen Rutter in The Ladder; Ruth E Cockburn’s Love Letters from Blackpool; Rula Lenska talking about her mother’s escape from Nazi-occupied Poland; two plays from award-winning Sudden Impulse; comic monologues from Radio 4 writer Kate Perry, and Trapped - physical theatre inspired by the trapped Chilean miners and performed in Poole’s Cavern with moments of complete darkness!
Music remains a major category with diverse attractions including jazz singer Annette Gregory, early music specialists Partita, acclaimed pianist Eden Walker, character musician Egriega, City of Manchester Opera, Mr Simpson’s Little Consort, French countertenor Adrien Mastrosimone and, in association with Buxton Festival, Vision, a candlelit show of medieval music starring Blake 7’s actor Jan Chappell as Hildegard of Bingen.
In smaller categories, the true variety of the Fringe becomes clear with attractions such as The Glummer Twins in Spoken Word; circus and street performance via Fit Up’s Fringe on the Market; an invitation to be entertained inside the historic Pump Room on Friday 13th, and some “disgusting” children’s songs” courtesy of Radio 4 performer Jay Foreman.
There are three managed venues this year - Underground Venues, The Rotunda and The Green Man Gallery - plus a great many events taking place around the town, in Poole’s Cavern and in the Pavilion Gardens as well as in more outlying venues.
Local Talent
Whilst performers come from far and wide, there are many local performers with treats including two Buxton choirs (Buxton Studio and Kaleidoscope), Basin Street Jazz & Blues, singer Will Hawthorne, the award-winning REC Youth Theatre, CJ Robinson’s art installation in the basement of a Buxton bungalow, big exhibitions like the Derbyshire Open and the Great Dome Art Fair and an entire mini-festival taking place at Chelmorton village.
Arts for all
Buxton Fringe's philosophy is that art is for all and Fringe organisers spread the word by entering a float in the Buxton Carnival and promoting a free open-air showcase of Fringe events called Fringe Sunday (this year July 8). Fringe at Five, a busking opportunity for performers; takes place at the Bandstand in Buxton's Pavilion Gardens at 5pm from July 9-21. Many other events are free, including the award-winning Buxton Pride Picnic and most of the Visual Arts section. All free shows are additionally listed on the website’s Fringe for Free page.
The Fringe also conducts community initiatives such as providing work experience for local students and encouraging entrants to perform in schools, care homes and youth organisations. This year it will have a paid intern for the first time and has offered support to lesser-used venues in the town including the library and Buxton Working Men’s Club.
A BAFA member, the Fringe has given talks at BAFA Roadshows and belongs to the Derbyshire festivals organisation, Festivity.
Fringe chair Keith Savage adds: “I saw my first Fringe event in 1990 but 28 years on the excitement of going through the programme picking out shows to go and see is as real as ever. For 2018 there are opportunities to see new faces to Buxton, catch up with those missed on previous visits as well as the pleasure of welcoming back friends from past festivals. We are grateful for the continuing sponsorship of the University of Derby, to the Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust and to High Peak Borough Council for financial and practical support. Their confidence in us means a great deal.”
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