Jay Richardson
Decades before the internet turned the world into an interconnected village, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe concept slowly went viral, spreading across the planet and mutating into a dizzying array of weird and wonderful festivals, with art popping up in the nooks and crannies of countless cityscapes. Yet although these events are all inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe in one way or another, they are as different as the towns and cities in which they take place, and over the years many of them have evolved distinctive traditions and customs that make them unique.
Second only to Edinburgh in size, the Adelaide Fringe has seen productions staged in an alleyway, a pub, a laundromat and an abandoned hospital for the criminally insane. A highpoint of their 31-day festivities is the opening night celebration, which includes a sunset ceremony (Tindo Utpurndee), held on the lawns of the South Australian Museum, in which dancers from the local Aboriginal community, acknowledged as traditional custodians of the land on which the festival is held, recognise its living Kaurna spirit and welcome fringe-goers. Next year, Adelaide’s main cultural boulevard, North Terrace , will also be transformed into a dazzling corridor of illuminations for its inaugural Parade of Light ,a show inspired by the Northern Lights and projected onto buildings on both sides of the street.
Some of the more memorable fringe productions seem to spring organically from their city’s character. Music is the heart and soul of many a festival and in 2014 the Dublin Fringe staged an orchestral concert on the newly erected Samuel Beckett Bridge on the Liffey, its curved, stringed design evoking the spirit of the Dagda’s harp, which the Irish deity played to inspire his warriors and regulate the seasons. With the structure illuminated and the stanchions hammered to make rough notes, choir and drums filled the air as dancers weaved across the decking, before water cannons traded shots across the river and a raft of rubber ducks set sail for the sea. In the same vein, last year’s Melbourne Fringe commissioned artist Robin Fox to make Sky Light, a striking installation in which 15 lasers in jewel tones of blue, green and purple were beamed from atop the IBM Tower to various buildings across the Yarra river. Choreographed with an amplified soundtrack, the work essentially played the urban architecture.
Further eye-catching events in Melbourne’s history include the sadly discontinued waiters’ race, in which waiters from all the cafes in Brunswick Street used to make a caffè latte and try to race each other down the street without spilling it. Then there was artist Spencer Tunick’s 2001 visit, in which the photographer persuaded 4,500 people to pose