Announcing Inaugural Milwaukee Fringe Festival

Announcing Inaugural Milwaukee Fringe Festival

New annual arts event will feature top performing and visual arts

MILWAUKEE, WIS – Milwaukee Fringe Festival, the region’s newest city-wide art festival is a two-day performance and visual art event celebrating Milwaukee’s vibrant and diverse arts scene. The event is nonprofit, and will provide an opportunity for emerging artists to be discovered while strengthening the fabric of Milwaukee’s arts community. The inaugural event will take place Saturday, August 27 and Sunday, August 28 Downtown Milwaukee at Pere Marquette Park, Marcus Center’s Wilson Theater at Vogal Hall and Todd Wehr Theater and surrounding venues.

The Milwaukee Fringe Festival will showcase live theatre, music, dance, comedy and visual art from the region alongside cropped-fringe.jpgkeynote speakers and national performers with a connection to the Greater Milwaukee area.  In addition, MKE Fringe Fest will also feature some of the area’s best food trucks, a beer garden provided by Old German Beer Hall and other culinary delights.

Founding member John Schneider describes the festival as “A collaborative, interactive, inter-generational, multidisciplinary performance exhibition meant to thank the people of Milwaukee for sustaining an environment in which the arts are genuinely valued and great work is possible.”

“Milwaukee’s art scene is as diverse and prolific as any in the nation. The Milwaukee Fringe Festival is an event to celebrate that diversity on a wide scale,” said festival Co-Founder Eric Engelbart.  “We want this festival to be an immersive experience that features extraordinary work from many Milwaukee and Wisconsin-based arts groups.”

The event will feature free outdoor performances in Pere Marquette Park and along the Milwaukee River, as well as ticketed indoor performances at some of Milwaukee’s best theater venues. The MKE Fringe Fest will focus on accessibility to the citizens of Milwaukee by offering free or inexpensive live performances in the center of the city.

Matt Kemple, Co-Founder of the MKE Fringe Festival stated, “Our goal is to expose audiences to talented performers they may not discover on their own, while also celebrating established artists who got their start in Milwaukee. There is a high level of talent here in Brew City and we want to acknowledge that talent with a celebration of the arts.”

Milwaukee Fringe Festival is presented under the direction of renowned television and film actor Willem Dafoe, John Schneider (Theatre Professor at Marquette University, Theater X), Eric Engelbart (Shepherd Express) Matt Kemple (Milwaukee Comedy Festival), Karen Raymond and Katie Rhyme (MKE Follies) and Brian Rott (Quazimondo Physical Theatre). The festival is produced under Nice Plays, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

A call for submissions is announced for creative artists of all kinds to submit to perform or display. Those interested may do so beginning February 15, 2016 via the Milwaukee Fringe Festival website, http://www.mkefringe.com. Submission fee: $20 or Early Bird is $15 until March 1st.. Submissions will be accepted through March 31, 2016.

 

The Inaugural Milwaukee Fringe Festival

August 27 and 28, 2016

Pere Marquette Parke and surrounding venues in Downtown Milwaukee.