Fringe World Festival has received $3.6 million for the next three years from Lotterywest to run a free community event as part of its programming.
The event, Lotterywest FRINGE FUNDAY, will be the key opening event on the first Sunday of the festival on January 16.
The funding announcement coincided with the launch of the festival’s 2022 programme.
The 2022 festival will have a local flavour, with most of the acts hailing from Western Australia.
About 75 per cent of shows are from WA, 18 per cent are from interstate and 6 per cent are from overseas.
Tickets for the festival’s 436 shows will go on sale today, with the possibility of more shows being added.
Artrage chief executive Sharon Burgess said the open-access non-curated Fringe platform meant more shows would go on sale in the lead up to the festival in response to any border changes.
Premier Mark McGowan said he would open borders when 90 per cent of Western Australians were fully vaccinated, and finalise a date for reopening when the jab rate reached 80 per cent.
The current programme includes circus act A Simple Space and Dane Simpson’s comedy show Digeridoozy.
At the Girls School in East Perth, audiences can see musical comedian Matt Storer’s Hot Nonsense and circus show She is Strong.
BIPOCity- Unity amongst Diversity will be shown at The Ellington Jazz Club and Jessie Gordon and Lucky Oceans will perform Honky Tonk Time Machine at Badlands.
It is the second year running where the closure of borders has meant the festival has a large local presence.
A lockdown in the middle of the festival seasoned caused 85 of 474 events to be cancelled which impacted ticket sales, according to Fringe World Festival’s 2021 impact report
About 226,800 tickets were sold, resulting in box office sales of $5.9 million, compared to 414,081 tickets sold and $10.9 million in box office sales in 2020.
The festival runs from January 14 to February 13.
