Exploring Everyday Philadelphia

I was first introduced to the Philly Fringe Festival about 5 years ago. A few friends had put together a spoken word show to be held at the now defunct Well Fed Artist’s Gallery. The show was good, but didn’t fare to well overall. The gang had fun.

Little did I know, the Philly Fringe Festival was held every year in order to allow live arts performers of all varieties the opportunity to show their skills to the public. All they had to do was develop a show, find a venue, and sign up with the official group. A ton of advertising was done for them by the Fringe folks, but they had a fair share to do on their own as well.

Now, the festival is combined with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. To sum it up, Philly Fringe is for amateurs while The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is for professional performance and theatre groups. The total festival this year runs over the course of 16 days, with performers from all over the country.

If I recall correctly, the festival used to start the weekend before Labor Day and then end on Labor Day weekend. This year it started on Labor Day Weekend (Friday, August 29th) and is going to run for 16 days! Eeek - performance overload!

I hope to get over there to see at least one or two shows this weekend. If you’re in the area, you need to look for the festival online and check out the schedule. Great prices - great entertainment - all over the city.

If you’re bored this weekend, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.