The Darwin Fringe is an open-access festival that supports the development of the arts community, providing opportunities for all artists to emerge, experiment, and showcase new and diverse works in Darwin to local and national audiences.

Core team

Director: Hannah Illingworth
Producer: TBA
Production Manager: TBA
Volunteer Manager: TBA
Box Office Coordinator: TBA

Additional team

Will be sound techs, stage managers and venue managers in the lead up to the festival.

Brief history

The Darwin Fringe has been a part of the Darwin creative eco system since the 80’s when it was a club space within the Bougainvillea Festival. Over the years it twisted to the needs of the community around it even having a life as the Fridge Festival in the early 2000’s. After speaking with the community in 2014, a group of emerging artists lead by CJ Fraser-Bell decided to reinvigorate the platform. They noticed a dire need for open access professional opportunities for creatives developing works and their career. The Territory climate, whilst rich in culture, had very little space available to minimise the leap between the first and final stages of an artistic career.

Enter Darwin Fringe, stage right. By 2014, they had a program, a crocodile, a team and just over 20 events. Things just kept getting better and better as the community came on board. 2016 saw 80 individual performances from 50+ shows, which by 2019 had grown to 180 performances from 100 shows. After 5 strong years of giving sweat, blood and glitter, Cj Fraser-Bell moved onto their next career journey leaving Hannah Illingworth and Tamara Howie to steer the ship.

Nowadays, the Darwin Fringe has become the biggest independent arts platform in the Top End offering audiences 10 days of unique low-cost experiences in July. In 2020, the Darwin Fringe offered a Professional Development program in October as well as a revised Festival in July.