Bergen Fringe Festival is an international festival, held annually for both the professional and the voluntary performing arts fields. Bergen Fringe Festivals core desire is to add an exciting and new international energy to the field locally and nationally, offering local and national production companies an international arena, as well as distribution through a close relationship with the intern
ational Fringe network. Fringe is a term associated with as many as 250 festivals around the world, which defines a unique structure and distinctive setting, while harbouring very open artistic content. Fringe is an international movement, which offers unrestricted opportunities for expression, and through this spirit, it gives a certain freedom of expression and variety of experience that you rarely get at other festivals. Fringe is much less curated and programmed than other performing arts festivals. The festival’s program defines itself by having the artists and companies themselves announce their interest in participating. The program is then created by a program committee consisting of various professionals within the performing arts environment. The program is put together after a professional assessment of the applications that come in from artists and companies. Fringe can present an artistic offering that is free from any commercial influence, one that also captures the innovative currents that are relevant at any given time, precisely by facilitating an attractive display arena, with a relatively low participation threshold. The festival offers artists a platform for artistic exploration and experimentation by opening up for productions in a smaller format.