Bath Fringe Festival

infobox music festival
music_festival_name = Bath fringe festival


caption =
location = Bath, Somerset
years_active = since 1981
founders =
dates = May-June
genre =
website = [http://www.bathfringe.co.uk The festival’s Home Page] The Bath fringe festival is an annual art festival, held in Bath, England.

Bath Fringe was founded in 1981 as a counterbalance to the 'classical'-dominated Bath Music Festival, which some people perceived to be elitist and out-of-touch with what a younger local audience wanted. [cite book|last=Bullimore|first=Tim|title=Fifty Festivals: The history of the Bath Festival|pages=3|chapter=9|url=http://www.mushroompublishing.com/fiftyfest/ff_ch9p3.html] In many ways the Bath Fringe was a direct descendant of the Walcot Festivals of the 1970s and 1980s, which had included elements of theatre, pop festival, ‘happening’, eco-activism and local creativity, supported by Bath Arts Workshop. [cite web |url=http://archive.bathfringe.co.uk/past/ |title=History of Bath Fringe Festival |accessdate=2007-12-19 |format= |work=Bath Fringe Festival ]

The festival is among the oldest continually operating in England, [cite web|url=http://archive.bathfringe.co.uk/past/fringe05/|title=Bath Fringe Festival 2005|work=Bath Fringe Festival|accessdate=2008-07-04] and includes around 200 events, taking place around the late May Bank Holiday, running for 17 days at the end of May and beginning of June.

Organisation

After the initial 1981 fringe festival, it became smaller until by 1991-2 it hosted less than a dozen events. A new group, a cooperative of local artists, promoters, venue managers and audience members revitalised the festival during the 1990s. Bath Fringe tends to try and create other organisations to run specific events or strands, so has variously given birth to:

* FAB (Fringe Arts Bath) - the visual arts part of the festival
* Walcot Independence Day - a large and popular outdoor party with lots of local creativity
* Streats - street, outdoor, site-specific, installations, performances in unusual spaces, who run the annual Bedlam Fair street festival, financed through the Fringe.
* Little Fiets – green-powered and activist events like ‘The Wheel Thing’.

Character

Many of the people working on events, and the committee that sets it all up, are volunteers, although it does have 2 part-time workers. In common with many Fringe Festivals all round the world most of the programme consists of people presenting their own events in their own venue or one hired for the duration – Bath Fringe does however run a core programme of street/outdoor/tented events itself and it maintains an Open Access policy, not imposing artistic constraints on work that participants put on themselves. The major tasks of the organisation revolve around the production of a print programme and website, and facilitating others to put on or include events. The relative financial independence of any individual sponsor or venue is maintained although funding is received from the local Bath and North East Somerset council and Arts Council England.

Bath Fringe in history

The southwest holds some of Britain’s major greenfield festivals - Glastonbury, WoMaD, Big Green Gathering and others are all held within 50 miles of Bath – and the city had an important place in the development of British Pop Festivals and Free Festivals - its popular Festival credentials go back to the pioneering Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. Many of the people working at the festival (technicians, facilities) also work at the big events, and there is some crossover of performers too. Bath Fringe sits in the ‘Festival Scene’ tradition as much as in the development of Fringe Theatre, although the Walcot Festival emphasis on outdoor performance and ‘guerilla’ events put it as a pioneer in the development of what are currently called ‘Street Arts’.

Past performers include:
Arthur Smith, Nola Rae, Jonathon Burrows Dance Company, Ken Campbell, Jeremy Hardy, Rich Hall, Mark Thomas, Julian Clary, Bill Bailey, Rory McLeod, Baka Beyond, James Fagan & Nancy Kerr, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Davy Graham, Robin Williamson, The Tiger Lillies, Jeff Green, Billy Childish, The Wrigley Sisters, Chris Newman & Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Peter Hammill, Jah Wobble, Ed Byrne, Mike Maran, Guy Masterton, Zion Train, DJ Yoda, John Shuttleworth, Andy Irvine, Dave Swarbrick, Jazz Jamaica, Lumiere & Son, Bob Downe, Forced Entertainment, Red Shift, The Cosmic Sausages, Steve Argüelles, Kate Rusby, Howard Marks, Mark Steel, John Hegley, Head Mix Collective, Leon Rosselson, Peepolykus, Ridiculusmus, Alan Parker, The Kosh, Lee Evans, Malcolm Hardee, Bill Jones, Tinariwen, Lo'Jo, Garth Merenghi, Marcos Valle, DJ Suv, KAOS Theatre, Angela De Castro, Beth Rowley, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Gamarjobat, DJ Derek ...

References

See also

Fringe Theatre

External links

* [http://www.bathfringe.co.uk The festival’s Home Page]
* [http://www.walcotstreet.com/archive.html Historical Walcot Festivals]
* [http://www.fringeartsbath.co.uk Fringe Arts Bath]
* [http://www.fringereport.com/art0705bathfringe.php Bath Fringe]
* [http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/leisureandculture/artsandentertainment/artsdevelopment/artsorganisationsservingbathnes.htm Arts Council England]
* [http://www.littlefiets.com Little Fiets]
* [http://www.streetartsnetwork.org.uk/members/list.php Bath & NorthEast Somerset Council]