Melbourne Fringe Festival Unveils Mammoth 2014 Program

The annual Melbourne Fringe Festival has officially unveiled its program for 2014, and with more than 400 shows across 150 venues to the event’s name throughout its near-three-week duration, this year’s festivities are well-placed to amount to the biggest celebration the Fringe has ever orchestrated.

With such a massive spread on offer, it can seem a little daunting in terms of knowing where to start, so let’s go with the logical landing point – the Fringe Hub.

Located in North Melbourne’s Errol Street precinct, the Fringe Hub is pegged as the festival’s “epicentre”, offering a curated program showcasing work from a range of acclaimed local, national and international highlights.

The Fringe Hub will be spread across ten venues, with 60 shows on its bill all up, including Indigenous and Islander showcase Flash!, the revealing, intimate first-run songs of 8 First Dates, a raft of attractions under the Live Art At The Fringe Hub banner, the return of Fringe comedy legends including Arj Barker, Rod Quantock, and Greg Fleet and a dedicated string of lady laughmasters such as Tessa Waters, Sophie Kneebone, Nicolette Minster and Rama Nicholas.

If you’re more a fan of visual arts, the Fringe has equally got you covered, with this year’s Fringe Furniture banner holding under its wings a whopping 90 works from 80 different artists in response to the theme Living Traces.

This will be Fringe Furniture’s 29th year at the festival, and continues solidifying its reputation as one of the country’s foremost ideas showcases, providing the city’s design landscape with a platform from which to show off its world-beating innovation, sustainability and creativity.

Twenty-five exhibitors are returning to the fold for 2014’s iteration of the showcase, including Marcus O’Riley with a 1986 table design, Nhan Luu (and a 1990s daybed), award-winning designer Fabio Biavaschi and Cindy-Lee Davies, the owner of Collingwood-based lighting store Lightly. There are also more than $3000 in prizes up for grabs, awarded by a panel of industry experts, past winners and artist representatives.

Over at the Little Creatures Dining Hall, the Fringe Film program, this year titled Digital Creatures, will return for its second event, and feature a range of films from several styles and genres including documentary, German-language short films and “purely visual” pieces of art.

All films in the Fringe Film program are rated G, so no trigger warnings or age restrictions necessary – just rock up and enjoy 12 of the best new short films from the deep and wonderful worlds of film, digital video, animation and art.

Of course, if that all seems a little bit mainstream for you, you could always learn about Melbourne’s hidden gems in the Uncommon Places program, which features ten artists – including Matt Blackwood, Ben Landau, Rafaella McDonald and Brienna McNish – across ten “special gathering places” around the city. The entire program is free and site-specific, so perfect for those with a bit of wanderlust coursing through their veins.

This all sounds like a lot, we know, but is nonetheless just a taste of the wide array of events, activities, showcases, and other attractions on offer at the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival, which runs from September 17 to October 5. See the Fringe website for more information.