Ventnor Fringe – the Island’s multi-award-winning arts festival which features gigs, comedy and performances in unusual spaces around Ventnor – is set to return from 21st-30th July, with the 1st wave of shows announced.
Over more than a decade, the event has grown from a handful of performances to hosting well over 100 different shows, each hosting performances in venues especially created for the event, alongside hundreds more who participate in the Free Fringe.
Early highlights to be announced this year include the acclaimed Barely Methodical Troupe’s International award-winning smash hit BROMANCE – a 5-star circus about camaraderie and affection. This is an audacious, touching, exhilarating tour-de-force of physical heroics, where handshakes become handstands and backslaps become backflips. It looks set to take The Big Top – a new venue introduced last year – by storm.
Following last year’s sell-out event, local promoters EarsPeeled return with A Day At The Fringe, a whole-day music takeover headlined by Coventry-based Alt/Indie band FEET, alongside the likes of Dublin’s Fizzy Orange, Bristol’s Grandmas House, London’s Freddy Merkky, and an array of Island talent. Other musical offerings announced include international psych explorers Flamingods, who combine Eastern and African influences, purveyors of some of this year’s most catchy earworms, Gengahr and BC Camplight, moniker of maverick songsmith Brian Christinzio. The Philadelphian is considered one of indie music’s most forward-thinking artists, with a discography which acts as a soundtrack to a life rife with bad fortune, mental illness, running afoul of the law, and ultimately absolute redemption.
Families will be pleased to see the return of 2-time Audience Choice Award Nominees Let’s Circus to the boutique Magpie Tent, with a brand new show Happy Daze. Also returning is the award-winning Japanese duo Witty Look, whose on-stage characters jump right out of the world of manga and cartoons. Meanwhile, The Handlebards turn their hands to JM Barrie’s Peter Pan in a special 3-hander adaptation with their signature comedic style.
For fans of cabaret, breakout star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2, Ginny Lemon explores the intersections of their working-class identity, queerness, and disability but with a distinct acidic wit, aesthetic and unique perspective on life has made them one of the UK’s most celebrated drag and performance artists in Pick ‘n’ Mix.
Much of the comedy offering is yet to be announced but 2-time Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee Ahir Shah (Live at the Apollo, The Mash Report, BBC 2) returns to curate and host The Pick of The Fringe, a selection of some the best comics from across the festival and always an early event to sell out.
With around 150 shows expected to take part, new additions to the programme will be added regularly at vfringe.co.uk, and audience members looking for advice or recommendations can also visit the festival box office at Ventnor Exchange (open 7 days a week from 10:00) or by calling (01983) 716767.
Yay! Flamingods are banging!