The wonderfully whimsical Fringe World 2024 is upon us. I’ve been attending this event for way too many years and have yet to have a bad year. Here are my 10 tips for this year.
This year the festival runs from 19 January to 18 February and offers up walking tours, comedy, music, musicals, circus and much more. Last year the event attracted over 560,000 attendees at free and ticketed events. More importantly over $8.7 million was spent at the Box Office, $6.3 million of which was paid to the artists and venues. So here are my tips for this year.
- Ticket prices. Ticket prices are excellent. Make sure you check out some of the free events too.
- Short bite size shows. Most of the shows are bite size, lastly about an hour. This is brilliant as it gives you a chance to try out artists you might’ve been wondering about but didn’t want to fully commit to.
- Multiple shows a night. The short timeframes mean you can easily go to more than one show a night, so get your planning on. Oh and wear comfy shoes if walking between venues.
- The headline act. I don’t always go to the headline act as I like to try out new shows, but this year’s headliner is a must see. I’ve seen three different Bernie Dietre’s shows and have never been disappointed. Book me in.
- Tried and Tested. We’re lucky to have a vast array of well-known talent here again this year, from Tom Gleeson, the Umbilical Brothers, Akmal, Arj Barker, Claire Hopper, Dave O’Neil, Gerladine Hickey, Rhys Nicholson and Dilruk Jayasinha to name a few. It would’ve been easier to list who isn’t here.
- Improv. I’ve been to many improv shows and had a ball. One I can highly recommend is Murder Village.
- Highly Recommended. Other performers I can recommend are: Charlie Caper, Laser Kiwi, Cam Venn (if you’re feeling brave) and at least one of the circus troupes.
- Try something new. This year I’m testing out the walking events e.g. True Crime Walking.
- Venues. The Pleasure Garden is always a great venue to just hang out in with friends, but why not try out some new venues. This year I’m checking out the shows at the Perth Town Hall, which is a new Fringe venue for me.
- Accessibility. The Festival has always been great in terms of letting us know which venues are accessible. They were the first festival to include the ACROD signs in their brochure and they’ve upped their game online.
On a sad note it’s tough not seeing Cal Wilson’s name amongst those performing.
For more information go to Fringe World