Bath Fringe Festival at Bath

Friday, 22 May, 2009

The origins of Bath Fringe go back to the sideshows which sprang up around important Temple festivals before and during the Roman Occupation, to the street fairs that surrounded the Abbey for the coronation of Edgar in 959... Well they don't completely, of course, but it's worth remembering that Bath has been a town of arts, visitors, travelling performers, even before the Georgian era that our Heritage Industry makes so much of.

It makes more sense to trace the Fringe back to the Bath Festivals of Blues & Progressive Music of '69 & '70, but the connections to the current crew are a little tenuous, so let's say the real start were the Walcot Festivals of the '70s & 'early 80s, mostly run by a community group called Bath Arts Workshop (the name still exists for the company that runs the Natural Theatre Company of Bath.

Over the years the Fringe has investigated and developed artforms events and audiences that have in many cases become mainstream, others of which have been taken on and commercialised by other promoters and festivals. 'Affordable Art', Spoken Word, Digital Arts & Media, Standup Comedy, Cabaret, Physical Theatre, Circus Arts, Folk & World Music, Latin Dance, Jazz, and the serious presentation of major figures from Pop, Rock and Black Music have all been Fringe centrepieces, some of which have been maintained and others developed elsewhere. That's part of the nature of Fringe and as such can't be regretted...