New Orleans Fringe Festival

The Festival nurtures emerging and established performing artists by presenting fun, fearless and affordable theater to the community and creating ties between artists, audiences, businesses and local organizations.

We bring fearless performers to fearless audiences.

Fringe theater is a tradition that started in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947 when eight performing groups were excluded from the mainstream annual arts festival. They decided to perform anyway, finding inexpensive or free venues on the fringes of the city. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has since grown into one of the largest arts festivals in the world, eclipsing the original festival that was too afraid for fringe.

These are the roots of the New Orleans Fringe Festival – the festival of the wild, weird, fresh, and original. New Orleans has always been a city that embraces artists, where creativity has flourished and the off-the-wall has gravitated.

New Orleans Fringe Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that was started by a handful of New Orleanians in 2008 who are passionate about theater.

We have grown a lot since. The annual Fringe Festival, held in November, is our flagship event, but we also organize activities throughout the year as a part of our Fringe Alternative Theater Incubator (FATI).