25th anniversary edition was biggest fringe ever

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This article was published 31/07/2012 (4791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The silver anniversary edition of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival was the biggest one yet.

Indoor attendance at the 12-day event was 100,621 tickets, up from 87,851 in 2011.

While still short of knocking Edmonton off its pedestal — last year’s indoor attendance there was 104,142 — the Winnipeg Fringe broke daily attendance records on 10 out of 12 days, according to a news release.

“It’s exciting. Obviously people took up the challenge and had some fun seeing some great theatre,” executive producer Chuck McEwen said in an interview.

“I was talking to a fringer the other day who saw a personal best — I think he was going for his 76th show on Sunday. That’s all we needed. Even if every regular saw just one more show than last year, it gets us well past the record.”

This year’s festival featured a record 172 performing companies in an unprecedented 32 venues, with 1,459 performances in total. It also benefitted from the support of a record 913 volunteers.

There were 175 sell-outs and $686,188 in box office revenue was paid out to the performers.

The 2012 Rintoul Award, presented by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights (MAP) to the best new Manitoba play at the fringe, went to Scott Douglas for The Touring Test. Douglas was presented with a crystal award, a $500 cheque and a superpass for the 2013 fringe. Andrew Cecon, Michael Nathanson and Andrea von Wichert were also nominated for the award.