Artist FAQs

The Sydney Fringe is an open access arts festival, the largest independent arts festival in NSW. Open Access means that anyone can put on a show as part of the festival in September. There is no selection process and the main festival program is not programmed or curated.

The Sydney Fringe does not produce any shows that register through our system. We are here to provide you with the resources, support and exposure necessary to make your show a success.

The Fringe does produce large scale public events, as well as increasingly commissioning work, providing paid performance opportunities and working with our partners to create vibrant festival hubs, that bring the city to life throughout September. (Keep your eyes peeled for EOI’s for performance opportunities and commissions!)

We also use our status as NSW’s largest independent arts festival to advocate for the needs of artists in Sydney.

Over the past six years, under the directorship of Kerri Glasscock, the Sydney Fringe team have enabled new open access spaces for artists year round, modelled pilot programmes including partnerships with retail, business and government (which keep your costs down), and tirelessly represented the challenges faced by artists to your elected officials.

The Sydney Fringe is Your Festival – the community of artists decides on, makes ,and produces the shows and events. We are an open access arts festival, which means that anyone can put on a show as part of the festival in September.

Registrations for 2023 open on March 15 and close on April 30.

Open Access also means that The Sydney Fringe does not produce your show – We are here to assist you in finding a venue, we will market the festival generally and manage all ticketing, and we are here to provide you with the advice, support and exposure necessary to make your show a success – however, you need to create, produce, manage, and market your work!

Sydney Fringe works with two kinds of venues:
1) Fringe Managed Venues (FMV Hubs) – existing and temporary spaces managed by Fringe and our partners. At an FMV your venue contract is with Fringe, and all venue related conversations are with Fringe.
or
2) Fringe Partner Venues (FPV)– existing performances spaces run by other managers, such as the Flight Path Theatre, The Red Rattler or the Seymour Centre. At a FPV, once we’ve matched you up with the right one, your venue hire contract and all venue related conversations are with the external venue manager.

If you already have a venue confirmed you can of course ‘BYO Venue’. Your venue will need to register as an official Fringe venue and sign up to our Venue Terms and Conditions. It’s a quick  and easy process that the Artist and Venue Services team can help with – just ask us how!

Sydney Fringe Festival 2023 will run from Tuesday 29 August to Saturday 1 October. Registrations for 2023 Festival are now open and will close on April 30. Registrations for other Sydney Fringe managed programs through 2023 will be announced on a rolling basis as program details are confirmed. To stay updated, join our mailing list. To stay updated, join our mailing list.

Sydney Fringe has the highest profile of any independent arts event in New South Wales.

In 2022 we reached 40 million pairs of eyes via our PR and marketing campaigns, and almost 70,000 people attended the festival. That’s the largest single audience base of any independent arts festival, venue, or event in NSW.

Genre Fluid and Multi-Art Form
The SFF is genre fluid and a platform for all artforms. We also support the needs of specific genres by creating hubs and types of experiences for audiences.

Guaranteed Access to Appropriate and Affordable Performance Space
We find and activate new, under-used and unused space throughout our enormous city – from the traditional to the site specific. In 2022 we activated 31 unique spaces not available to artists at any other time of the year and brokered free or discounted rent with a range of existing performance spaces. Our venue matching process continues to evolve, providing more diverse performance spaces than ever before, with more themed hubs and festival villages across Greater Sydney.
 
Our Audiences Love New Work and New Experiences
The SFF provides a great platform for new and experimental work or work in development. 45% of our audience say the main reason they come to the SFF is to see new work, and 43% say their main reason is to have unique experiences. Our audiences are looking for something a little different so use the Fringe as an opportunity to develop, test and explore your work.

There’s more on how to budget, market and create your show in our handbook, and Sydney Fringe hosts a series of eight masterclasses from March through to May, which will see you on your way to producing and presenting a cracker show or event in 2023.

A few tips and tricks and system changes from previous years:

• Remember to include the customer ticketing fee in your advertised price.
• Remember that in 2023 all managed venue Hubs will have mandatory opt-in for the 15% Multi-Show Discount deal, so factor this in when setting ticket prices.
• Make sure you budget specifically, bank on no more than 30% capacity, and record the time and resources you’re giving to the project ‘In-Kind’ (i.e. without payment).
• Remember to embrace all that the Fringe has to offer – from producer support sessions to networking events, the chance to see shows for free, awards, and future touring possibilities – your Fringe experience can be so much more expansive than your own show!

The Sydney Fringe is an open access event. The process to register and communicate with the festival and the venues happens mostly in a custom built online environment designed specifically by the Sydney Fringe for our artists. Our EVENTOTRON portal makes it much easier to connect with other national and international festivals when you’re thinking about taking your show on the road. Most importantly, it’s easy to use.

The steps to follow for this process are documented in the 2023 Eventotron Guide for Event Presenters.

International Performers
The Sydney Fringe welcomes International Performers. The Registration process is the same as for a local performer, but will required to answer a few more questions relating to financials and taxation.

If you are an international performer, you are responsible for ensuring that you have the correct Visa’s to perform in Australia. The Sydney Fringe can only offer limited support in the area of Visa’s. If you do need Visa support or have concerns around Visa arrangements, please contact our Programming Team as early as possible at artists@sydneyfringe.com.

The Sydney Fringe does not produce any shows that register through our system. We’re here to provide you with the resources, support and exposure necessary to make your show a success. Artists are responsible for all of the presentation, production and marketing costs relating to their events.