Newcastle Fringe Festival is excited to be launching our new look website and getting ready for our 2021 season.
Newcastle Fringe volunteers and board were devastated to have to cancel this year’s festival. It had been gearing up to be the biggest festival we had ever held and ticket sales were strong. We made the call to cancel with just 2 days’ notice and were among the first to live stream during covid.
Since then, in these strange times of pandemic, we have been busy recruiting new volunteers, redesigning our new website, creating a promotional video and planning our 2021 season with an eye toward changes that may be necessary due to the virus and possible restrictions.
Restrictions on international travel mean that there will be no international acts in the 2021 festival. As yet, we are unclear about interstate travel. On the plus side, there were several acts that are based in NSW and the Hunter and Central Coast regions that were keen to return in 2021. The current plan is to present these acts plus any others that answer the callout in a 3 to 5 day festival across the third weekend of March (17 to 21 March 2021).
As we currently have no idea about the situation we will face in March 2021, we are looking at adding an open-air venue as a healthier alternative to enclosed spaces. Our audience sizes will be covid-restricted to safe numbers and we will be offering a live stream component to the festival so that in one way or another, it will go ahead.
While you’re here, explore our new website. If you’re not already signed up to our newsletter, now is a good time to do so as you’ll be the first to know what’s happening in 2021
