This year’s Fringe Festival promises to be the largest and most ambitious in the Festival’s 28-year history. With 331 shows in 96 locations, a mix of local and international performers, family and adult themes, live and digital stages, and city-wide venues, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the schedule and get tickets early for this annual extravaganza held on Sept 4-28.

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival was founded by Philly Fringe Arts in the tradition of the historic Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 1947, eight groups, who were uninvited to the Edinburgh International Festival, decided to stage performances on the “fringe” of the International Festival in unconventional venues. Maintaining that vibe, the first Philly Fringe Fest in 1997 took place in Old City for five days, offering 60 performing groups in equally unconventional locations, including alleys, abandoned buildings, nightclubs, etc. A celebration of Philadelphia’s rich and exciting experimental theater scene featuring a long history of award-winning devised and ensemble-created work, physical theater, dance theater, circus-based performances, and so much more, the Fringe Festival has been important to Deborah Solo as a Fringe Sponsor and supporter for over a decade. 

As Deborah notes, “My daughter Leah’s love and involvement in theater from the time she was seven brought me into the fringe fold. She saw her first Pig Iron show when she was in high school, and at the end of her senior year, she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I was lucky enough to go to Edinburgh, and from then on, I was hooked. My first memory of a Philadelphia Fringe Show is probably Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Pay Up have been attending Philadelphia Fringe shows for 15 plus years and became a supporter of the event 10 years ago.  It’s such a wonderful part of the city, and so inclusive. Leah even directed a play in the Fringe Festival in 2011. I love how the Fringe takes audiences, me included, to venues all over Philadelphia. I’ve seen acrobatic dance shows in historic churches, mediations on office culture in an abandoned Rite Aid, and a show without any human performers in a warehouse in the Navy Yard. Attending shows all over the city helps us know our city better, while live theater draws you in and opens you up to the world. I’m proud to be a Fringe supporter and I’ve already bought my tickets for this year’s festival.” 

This year’s Fringe Fest will be based at Fringe Arts’ permanent home since 2013 at 140 Christopher Columbus Boulevard (at Race St), as well as at venues throughout the City. Fringe Arts performance center features a theater, studio space, restaurant, beer garden and box office. This is the home base of the Fringe Festival every September, as well as a year-round venue presenting other festivals and events curated by the organization. 

For one month, public and private spaces across the city will astonish audiences of over 40,000. This includes: comedy, circus, dance, opera, drag, theater, spoken word, puppets, etc. And who couldn’t use some political satire right about now? For that, don’t miss Dystopia, Gillbert & Sullivan Style, a wild musical romp, one performance only, Saturday, September 27th, 4 pm at First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. (13 and up).

Other Fringe Fest highlights include Dambudzo, which invites audiences into a world of African music, painting, sculpture, and performance featuring dancer Nora Chipaumire, a Zimbabwe-born, Brooklyn-based choreographer. Audiences are invited to explore this space, which references Zimbabwe before the end of apartheid. Or experience Around the World in 80 Toys, a cinematic and theatrical journey into the realm of micro-cinema, classic stage magic, illusions, and puppetry. Writer-director-actor Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips performs the true story of Georges Méliès, who made hundreds of groundbreaking movies but by the 1920s lived in obscurity, working in a small toy store in Paris. 

Philly artist, dancer/choreographer Rennie Harris will be presenting the world premiere of  Beautiful Human Lies: Chapter 4, an evening-length solo dance performance by Megan Bridge. Sept 6, 7 & 8 at 302 S. Hicks St. September 6, 2025 7 pm. Pre-Show Talk, Sept 6 at 6 pm, with Brenda Dixon Gottschild, choreographer, scholar, and writer, and Rennie Harris, choreographer.

But wait, there’s more! Much more!

This year, the Fringe Fest has “Hubs,” each offering its own extravaganzas. The Cannonball Festival presents over 100 performances, encompassing dance, theater, circus, workshops, and parties at three venues: Icebox Project Space, 1400 N. American St.; The Drake, 1512 Spruce St.; and Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St. Another “Hub” not to be missed is at Circus Campus, 6425 Greene St. in Mt Airy, with an exciting roster of workshops and shows from circus arts to drag.

Tickets are available for all performances at Fringe Arts and the TKTS Ticket Booth at the Independence Visitor Center, 599 Market St. Or buy tickets online by visiting the Fringe Fest events page and choosing the type of performance you wish to see.