Chris Gibson & Bri Dow
How fitting that a celebration of weird performance arts found its way to Harrisburg in the form of the unique experience that is a “Fringe Festival.”
Full of diverse, creative talent, Harrisburg is a smaller city on the fringe of being more renowned than we currently are. Despite our convenient accessibility to major cities, we’re often out-skirted, on the fringe of the mainstream. We’re all a little mad here.
Harrisburg’s first-ever Fringe Festival is slated for this month, borrowing many of its elements from those held in larger cities to distinguish it from a typical town to-do.
“There is no 15-second elevator speech to explain a Fringe Festival, so a large part of what we’ll be doing is educating,” said Fringe Festival’s co-producer Chris Gibson. “The best way to describe it is a call to artists to show up and do something weird. And for the community to show up and see something they wouldn’t ordinarily see.”
Although the quality of being weird (in a good way) is subjective, co-producer and 717 Arts Board Treasurer Bri Dow said that we can expect to experience art that “takes risks, pushing boundaries beyond the mainstream in a traditional sense.”
The Fringe Festival evokes a sense of magic for Gibson, partly because of its completely blurred lines between performers and attendees. That doesn’t necessarily mean audience participation pieces. It just means the artists are accessible, with everyone immersing themselves in a festival atmosphere vibe.
“You’ll find the artists at the beer tent, mixing along with everyone else,” Gibson said. “With building relationships with everyone on the circuit year after year, I’m blown away when I recognize so many volunteers.”
Safety Net
Harrisburg’s Fringe Festival will give artists opportunities to launch their weird works and fly their freak flags, providing them wider exposure for their art. The festival is un-juried and uncensored, to give the vibe an “almost anything goes” feel. (If you’re bringing younger kids, there are separate sections cordoned off and clearly marked.)
Gibson and Dow purposefully structured the Fringe Festival to level the playing field for artists who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the expensive things that performing artists need.
For a relatively small investment from the artist, the festival provides a network of venues, props, technical support, publicity and other overhead. Partnerships with sponsors help to defray costs, with 100% of ticket sales given to the artists. Gibson likened it to producing theater with training wheels, with having a safety net in place.
“We recognize the limitations in accessing resources, and we’re especially interested in lifting the voices in underserved communities to invest in the quality of life in Harrisburg,” Gibson said.
A lottery system for applications helps keep the selection process as fair and unbiased as possible, with 30% of space reserved for under-represented groups. The structure will enable artists to be successful in a way that’s beneficial to them. Without any popularity network, new artists can more easily gain a platform.
All the shows last 60 minutes or less, with tickets selling for no more than $10. There’s also a live-streaming option with a Q&A period leading up to the event.
“This might be an artist’s big break,” Gibson said. “Then again, not everyone will knock it out of the park, and that’s OK.”
More Talent
The original Fringe Festival started in Edinburgh in 1947, when several poorer performing arts companies ran their own separate festival parallel to an official festival only meant for its elite citizenry. It didn’t take long for the hoi polloi to climb their way through the upper crust, pop through the top, and stomp holes in it, surpassing the city’s official festival in international popularity. You can find other Fringe Festivals in certain larger cities, like Orlando, Kansas City, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto.
Harrisburg’s upcoming, four-day festival comes on the heels of a pilot fundraiser event, “Fringe in a Day,” held in August 2022, a 24-hour festival where artists were challenged to create works based on a surprise theme. In contrast, works performed at the upcoming Fringe Festival “will be a lot more thought out,” Dow said.
“Artists spend a ton of time putting [their performances] together,” Dow said.
Gibson and Dow have big goals for future fringe festivals, including international outreach. But for their initial run, they’re keeping plans manageable and expectations grounded. Dow sees the festival as a way to simultaneously grow and reflect the diverse community of Harrisburg.
“If we don’t keep it basic and give ourselves room to grow, we won’t get out of the starting gate,” Gibson said.
So, for this year, they’re going with what’s available, accessing some key resources and model elements from the Orlando Fringe Festival.
“This city is ripe with so much potential, but we don’t have time to showcase everyone,” Gibson said. “We’re marketing all over the world for artists to come here, to put Harrisburg on an international stage. With so many great venues and Black excellence we’ve invested in, we have more talent than we deserve.”
The Harrisburg Fringe Festival takes place July 6 to 9 at various venues in the city. For more information, visit www.hbgfringe.com.
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