The Toronto Fringe Festival
The Fringe festival celebrated it’s twentieth year this year and like a good wine it only gets better with age. The Fringe Festival happens in the summer at locations across downtown Toronto and is always one of the highlights of my year. This year was no exception. As a second year volunteer I already knew some of the venues and even some of the performers. But that’s not what makes Fringe Festival so great. As it highly depends on volunteers the Fringe’s community of volunteers always seem to know each other and on any given day could be caught playing cards or chatting about the new Batman movie and the legend of Frank Miller (one of the greatest comic book writers of all time). The performances this year were better than ever and in terms of live theatre that ranges from one man shows with no props to pretty much dress rehersals of future Toronto plays that could be the next Rent or Wicked. The Fringe Festival is a great showcase of new talent, great and sometimes odd shows, and eccentric performers. Other than the live theatre at reasonable prices one of the great things about the Fringe is that you never know what’s going to happen, onstage and off. Whether it’s a guy accidently cutting his thumb with a peeler onstage or a woman asking a total stranger to park her car so she will be able to get into the show it was one hell of a ride. As always the volunteer coordinators and even the ‘snooty’ performers were the nicest people in the world. This was a great year for the Fringe and tons of fun for me.
Joseph, 18
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