Camden Fringe 2013
From the 29th July to the 25th August the streets of Camden will be filled with laughter as it hosts the Camden Fringe Festival. The Camden Fringe has been a regular event for the past eight years and continues to get bigger and better every year. If you only make it to the one festival this summer, make sure it’s to the one that will leave you with a smile on your face.
It’s Not Edinburgh!
Seventeen different venues will play host to more than one hundred and eighty performances, filling the borough with the sound of laughter. Edinburgh may be the city you most associate with a Fringe Festival but Camden is proving to be a popular alternative. The festival was the brain child of two women, Michelle Flower and Zena Barrie, who still manage the festival today. They previously worked together producing shows for the famous Edinburgh Fringe and also ran a theatre in Camden together for eight years. This wealth of experience led them to produce the first Camden Fringe in 2006 at their own Etcetera Theatre. Then there were a total of fifty seven performances and only twenty two acts appearing. Over the following years more venues were added until this year there are a full seventeen. Unlike other festivals which tend to focus upon the main street of a town, the Camden Fringe involves the whole of the borough with events taking place from the heights of Highgate through to Covent Garden.
Rave Reviews
Each year the performers at the Fringe have received rave reviews from the local media. Picking out the performances for their edginess, a unique mixture of theatre, dance and of course comedy. What the festival does is stem the flow of performers every summer that make their way to Edinburgh for their famous fringe festival. Keeping the theatres at home filled with performances and delighted theatre goers. The festival is regarded as an important platform for new performers. A place to experiment, where imagination knows no bounds and incredible acts can be discovered. Though Camden may not have the international reputation of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival it is gaining in popularity every year, and is becoming known as a place to spot the next big name in the comedy world.
Festival Highlights
If you have watched KidCapricorn on YouTube you will recognise Simon Fielder. A regular at the Fringe this is the first time he has gone solo. This is the one to watch, if you want to see him at Edinburgh you will have to wait another year, so catch him at the Etcetera Theatre. His one man show is entitled ‘All the Things I am Not’.
If you thought ventriloquism was dead you obviously haven’t seen Sarah Jones. Sarah is Australian and her show entitled ‘Sarah Jones Does not Play Well With Others’ is being widely regarded in the media as one of the shows not to miss. Sarah will be performing at the Sheephaven Bay. Full details of all of the acts and venues can be found on the festival’s Facebook page.
