2025 Halifax Fringe Festival Applications

Today, March 20 2025, we're launching our 2025 application for the 35th Halifax Fringe Festival!

PERFORMER APPLICATION: PLEASE READ AND ACKNOWLEDGE BY FILLING OUT THE FORM YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING

(Please note: If you find any portions of this application are not functioning or if you are experiencing difficulty submitting, please e-mail sara@halifaxfringe.ca and we will correct the problem as soon as possible.)

Halifax Fringe Festival takes place in K'jipuktuk on unceded Mi'kmaw territory.

The $50 +hst application fee helps the festival to process all applications and pay for the labour of the festival.

Application Dates of Importance:

Application Form/Fee Due: APRIL 21 2025! 

Confirmation of Acceptance: APRIL 25 2025!

Invoices Sent: APRIL 25 2025!

Artist Agreements Due: MAY 15 2025!

Full Fees due: MAY 15 2025!

Schedules (Tentative) Sent to Artists: JUNE 1 2025!

Last day to withdrawal and receive 50% of fees back: JUNE 1 2025!

Your production fee ranges depending on how many performances you want in what size venue.

You choose your run time (up to 60 min), your venue size (up to 175 seats), and how many performances (up to 10). You also choose your ticket price (ranging from PWYW to $30).

Correspondence will be through e-mail with the Primary Contact only, unless the Secondary Contact or another method of communication is required for any reason. Halifax Fringe Festival (the “Festival”) is part of a growing community of Fringe Festivals throughout North America, dedicated to supporting independent performers and artists and creating affordable spaces through which diverse communities can experience boundary-pushing theatre and other performances, in accordance with the four criteria set out by the Canadian Association Of Fringe Festivals (CAFF):

Fringe Festivals are un-juried.

Fringe Festivals are uncensored.

Fringe Festivals are accessible to audiences and artists.

Fringe Festivals return 100% of the ticket price to participating artists.

BYOV: We accept "bring-your-own-venue" (BYOV) shows. In that case you supply your venue, your technical equipment, your technicians. We supply volunteers to run box office. If you supply your own venue, your Registration Fee is a flat $250.

Halifax Fringe Festival will provide a venue/stage with sound, lighting, seating, venue technician and technical set-up time. We provide box office management services to sell tickets and deal with audiences. You must use our ticket seller. We will place your show into the Fringe schedule, on HalifaxFringeFestival.ca and in the official Halifax Fringe Festival printed program, with blurb/write-up and a (small) hi-res graphic of your choice. We will return to you all box office receipts within 30 business days of the closing of the Halifax Fringe. We do local calls fro billets, but make no guarantee we will find one. Artist housing is the sole responsibility of the artist, Fringe will help where possible.

You are responsible for your own publicity, posters, advertising.

You are responsible for your own personnel/volunteers in set-up, take down, stage management, etc.

You are responsible for providing prompt and accurate information to the Festival when we request it.

Contact Sara@halifaxfringe.ca with any questions

Our ticket fee range is higher due to feedback from artists and accounting for the rising costs, we want to allow artists to charge the ticket prices they will need to to make their show financially viable for them. Please note through our PWYC Fund, the fringe festival has traditionally covered the full cost of a PWYC ticket for patrons. The Fringe festival can only cover up to $15 of a PWYC ticket for those with higher ticket prices than $15. To keep our program accessible, no patron is turned away for lack of funds.

Please use the star ranking below to rank which venues you would like to perform in most. 5 stars being the venue you would like to perform in most. 1 star being the venue you would least like to perform in. If venues are equal to you please rank with the same rating.

EQUITY LOTTERY PROGRAM: We are committed to an ongoing effort to support an inclusive, accessible, and diverse theatre arts community.

In this instance, equity-seeking refers to an artist whose self-identifies as a voice that is traditionally underrepresented and under-resourced on theatre stages and in festival settings. For example, equity-seeking artist may identify as but not limited to an Indigenous artist, artist of colour, transgender artist, disabled artist, or neuro-divergent artist.

EQUITY LOTTERY BENEFITS

The Equity Lottery is given annually to one equity-seeking artist who applies to participate in the Halifax Fringe Festival. The Equity Lottery recipient will receive:

in-kind support including one lottery venue spot, technicians, lighting, sound equipment, box office support, marketing, public relations and advertising in support of their show; and

reimbursement of the Festival application fee in full.

Unsuccessful applicants will be placed in the general Festival lottery in accordance with their designation as a local or national artist, providing them an additional chance to secure a lottery spot.

Eligible applicants must be:

the lead artist of the project who self-identifies as equity-seeking (equity-seeking may not be extended to the subject matter of the work or additional artists contracted to support the creation and production of the work);

available to participate in the upcoming Halifax Fringe Festival, including any necessary technical rehearsal time in advance of the Festival.

EVALUATION

Applicants are self-selecting and will automatically be entered into a lottery draw for the Equity Lottery. Please note, all applications will be vetted by committee to ensure adherence to the eligibility guidelines above. Any applications that do not meet the award eligibility will be removed from the Equity lottery and placed in to the appropriate lottery category.

We are especially keen to support artists and stories from communities that are currently underrepresented in Canadian theatre (including but not limited to IBPOC and Deaf and disabled artists).