Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019 Breaks Records

The 2019 Melbourne Fringe Festival has closed with a record-breaking year for the 38-year-old festival.

Melbourne Fringe’s move to Trades Hall celebrates a new chapter in the Festival’s history, with ticket sales in excess of $1 million for the first time, a 15% increase in ticket sales and 40 productions selling at over 90% audience capacity.

Ticket sales are returned to participating artists and are vital to supporting the independent arts sector. Top selling shows at the Festival included Yummy Deluxe, The Listies Make you LOL, Society, Railed, We Are The Robots, La Nonna, Moira Finucane’s The Rapture Chapter II: Art vs Extinction and Geraldine Hickey – Things Are Going Well.

“I’m thrilled that Melbourne Fringe’s move to Trades Hall has been such a resounding success,” said Simon Abrahams, Creative Director and CEO. “It’s been extraordinary to see so many people soaking up the history and artistry of Trades Hall, our new civic heart for the Festival.”

In the record-breaking year, 104 events were programmed in eleven venues throughout the historic Trades Hall building, with audiences drinking more than 5,000 cans of Young Henrys beer and 4,000 glasses of Bird in Hand wine across the 18 days of the Festival.

The Festival closed on Sunday night with the presentation of the Melbourne Fringe Awards. Decided by over 130 independent industry peers, award winners included Selina Jenkins’ Boobs, Yuck Circus, Bron Batten, Harriet Gillies, Dan Giovannoni, Scout Boxall, Amos Roach, Christopher James White and more.

The 2019 Melbourne Fringe Living Legend is Melbourne circus royalty, Anni Davey. The Living Legend Award is presented to someone who has inspired high quality work as an exemplar to the Fringe community by supporting artists, shifted the focus of practice, ideas and debate and provided leadership above and beyond the call of duty.

Registrations for 2020 Melbourne Fringe Festival will open in April 2020.