Buxton Festival Fringe - big, long and high quality!

PRESS RELEASE: For immediate release May/June 2008

This year's Fringe (July 9-27) is bigger than ever featuring a record-breaking 126 entries adding up to over 450 performances. It is also two days longer than last year to coincide with the newly extended Buxton Festival. A massive celebration of the arts, the Fringe is open to all and boasts a huge variety from theatre to music (the two biggest sections) but also including comedy, visual arts, dance, family events, spoken word, guided walks and more.

The key managed venues for 2008 are Nice Venues at the Old Clubhouse and Underground Venues at the Old Hall but many other venues are also used around the town as well as outreach sites such as St James the Less in New Mills. The full-colour free Fringe programme, now on 70% recycled paper, is widely available from June and you can also find full listings and updates on the website http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk. Watch out this year for:

  • Bumper theatre section: Take your pick from George Telfer's Do You Still Throw Spears at Each Other? about Prince Philip; Three's Company's Auditorium, featuring knockabout farce and French philosophers; 1623's Hamlet performed in Poole's Cavern and much more.
  • Music for all: City of Manchester Opera, Amaretti Chamber Orchestra, Cantores Novae choir, Lora Gold with a surreal take on opera, Fringe Award winner Sam Dunkley plus just about every other musical genre
  • Top comedy: Channel 4 new comedy writing award-winner Helen Keen; Jonathan Ross's warm up man, Patrick Monahan, and stand up from Barrel of Laughs and GSOH, both at Underground Venues
  • New writing: Now highlighted in the programme, new writing is particularly strong this year with examples including poet Mark Gwynne Jones; black comedy Cracked from Fringe Award-winning Northern Gap Theatre and Sue Gregory's Lily - Memoirs of a Late Middle-Aged Arty Nymphette
  • Local talent: Buxton-bred Three's Company; Buxton Community School's Imagine Theatre Co; Buxton Drama League; Packhorse Poets; Young Rec; blues singer Gill Sweeting; poet F Philip Holland and more
  • International flavour: Benny Chi Yum Hui performs Chinese music written after the Cultural Revolution; Emma Souza Lima plays piano music by her father-in-law, the Brazilian composer, João de Souza Lima. Also: award-winning Greek classical guitarist Dimitris Dekavallas; world folk duo Katuš; pianist Tim Mottershead goes Around the World in 60 Minutes and American Bern Budd becomes Mark Twain.
  • Visual arts: Derbyshire Open, Burbage Art Group and the Fringe Award-winning painter Alan Bailey plus new ventures such as photography at Brierlow Bar and Peak District Products' Great Dome Art Fair.
  • Something unexpected: Make a patchwork quilt. Drop in on a free Fringe Reading. Enjoy a science/magic show from Fringe Award Winner Lab Monkey Productions. Learn about well dressing on a guided walk. Find out: 'How To Make Tax Deductible Cash From Your Kids AND Shop For Free At Waitrose' with BBC Travel Show reporter Matthew Collins
  • Fringe Sunday (July 13th, 2-4.30pm, Pavilion Gardens). Free showcase of acts, face painting and fun
  • Fringe Club. Hobnob with performers at The Old Hall Hotel. Come to the free Fringe Launch Party on July 9.
  • Carnival (July 12th, from 2pm). Support the Fringe float! Wear orange!
  • Friends of the Fringe. Join our growing band of Friends for reduced admissions and special events
  • Fringe Beer - For every pint, the Fringe receives 10p. At The Old Clubhouse.
  • A registered charity, the Buxton Festival Fringe runs concurrently with the opera and literature based Buxton Festival but is a separate organisation run by volunteers. Since 2003 it has received generous sponsorship from the University of Derby, Buxton. It is also supported by The Osborne Group, High Peak Borough Council and others. During the Fringe, the Fringe Information Desk is next to the Opera House in the front of the Pavilion Gardens Conservatory. It will be manned from 10am to 4pm between July 9-27 and during these dates there is a dedicated phone line for enquiries - 01298 73461. Outside these dates, contact Fringe Chair, John Wilson, on 01298 70562, or Send message to Info.

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