The ESL Rochester Fringe Festival announced the lineup for its 15th season at the George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre on Tuesday, June 14. Taking place over 12 days, from September 15-26, the festival transforms downtown Rochester into a haven for artistic performances that sit outside of the mainstream.
Based on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival model, this year’s festival will feature 297 productions across 45 venues, spanning circus acts, comedy, theater, and sonic explorations, with many defying easy categorization. Performed in venues around Rochester, the festival also erects its emblematic spiegeltent, a temporary jewel-box tent, and a new Garden Studio, a small-scale, intimate theater.
This year’s festival embraces its ‘circus’ reputation by featuring the first-ever, large-scale collection of outdoor circus performances in Western New York, part of what the festival calls Circus in the City. Free performances include the Canadian circus troupe Flip Fabrique, an acrobatic ladder show by the trouple Aloft, a duo trapeze act from Big Teeth Collective, a transformative outdoor show by Circus Evo, and a twilight performance by 3AM Circus. These performances take place downtown, in the Spiegeltent or at Parcel 5.
The festival lineup also hosts the world premiere of Cirque du Fringe: Anchors Away, a murder-mystery theatrical production set aboard a cruise ship, led by Las Vegas circus and comedy performers Matt and Heidi Morgan. Capitalizing on the meta-cult hit originally from the Edinburgh festival, Rochester’s festival also hosts a performance of Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves, which is exactly as its title describes.
Announced in June ahead of the full schedule, comedian Pete Davidson headlines the festival on Saturday, September 25, at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Davison was originally scheduled to headline in 2024, but pulled out due to seeking mental health treatment.
Last year’s festival attracted approximately 90,000 attendees.
See the Rochester Fringe Festival website for the full schedule and to purchase tickets.
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