Cape Town Fringe Festival 2016

Modelled after selected fringe festivals held across the globe, the third annual Cape Town Fringe Festival aims to make the arts accessible to a much broader slice of the population with, small productions performed by independent artists in off-the-wall spaces.

With exciting local and international acts set to perform in 80 events for the Fringe Festival alone (Cape Town Buskers Festival events are still to be announced), you can anticipate theatre, comedy, dance, and so much more.

There will be various mid-morning to evening events during the week and a special day-into-night weekend programme.

Festival delights

The ever-popular children’s picture book, The Gruffalo, will be performed live on a South African stage for the first time. This musical production (adapted from picture book) will be performed by an all-Grahamstown cast.

Other highlights include Rob van Vuuren’s Dangled, clown-satirist Klara van Wyk’s You Suck and Other Inescapable Truths, Sacre for One, Out of Bounds, Machine Makes Man, and the highly acclaimed UK comedy Police Cops.

There’s also the inaugural Cape Town Buskers Festival to look forward to. Held at the V&A Waterfront, it offers free outdoor sessions performed by international and local street performers, including Canada’s highly regarded Dynamike.

Fringe Benefits

Aside from certain free events and the generally low festival cost (R40 – R100), special concessions have been made for students and pensioners, and there are also box-office specials such as half-price Mondays. Also, for the duration of the festival, the upstairs area of the City Hall is the perfect spot to relax and have a drink or a meal between shows.

Mother City takeover

Though the City Hall will serve as the main venue, performances will be held around Cape Town and Langa at the following venues: the Alexander Bar, V&A Waterfront, the Makukhanye Arts Room in Khayelitsha, Langa’s Theatre in the Backyard, Guga S’Thebe and the new AFDA Theatre.

Did you know?

The Fringe’ concept was created after World War II by a group of artists who felt so excluded from the main festival that they created their own one, which is the world’s biggest and best known, The Edinburgh Festival.

Book online to avoid missing out on the action. After all, third time is always a charm.