Toronto Fringe Festival 2024

From Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday, July 14, 2024, the Toronto Fringe returns with its annual festival of unjuried, often original and always exciting, theatre and performance works. This year’s Festival features 77 companies performing at 16 venues across the city over the course of 12 days, including comedy, drama, musicals, improvisation, storytelling, children’s theatre, dance and more.

Performances include Rosamund: A New Musical, a reimaging of Sleeping Beauty by Andrew Seok, who wrote The Man With The Golden Heart, a sold-out hit at last year’s Toronto Fringe; Crime After Crime (After Crime), an action-packed physical comedy spanning 1950s film noir, 1970s heist and 1990s buddy cop, from audience and critically-acclaimed sketch comedy troupe Sex T-Rex; Laura Landauer’s Being Celine, an ode to Canadian pop icon Celine Dion, in concert and intimate conversation; and Japanese comedian Kazu Kusano’s Pretty Beast, a hero’s journey of self-discovery and comedy as a superpower while navigating a dysfunctional family and sexist stereotypes.

”The Fringe is theatre made on a shoestring budget, chosen by lottery. Anyone can enter and, if their number is picked, get in. Dora-winning artists rub shoulders with kids fresh out of theatre school. Ticket prices are reasonable. Lineups are fun and informative, ‘So what have you seen and liked?’ being the typical ice-breaker.”

– Glenn Sumi, theatre critic

In addition to its program of performances, the Festival also includes free entertainment and events at the Fringe Patio, the community hub at the Tranzac Club; and KidsFest Club, part of KidsFest, a festival within the Festival for kids at St. Volodymyr Institute. Plus, KidsFest offers two week-long sessions of Fringe Kids Day Camp, where kids ages 4-11 get the chance to immerse themselves in the world of theatre, diving into improvisation, storytelling and drama games.

Photo of a group of kids sitting on the grass for story time outside the Ukrainian Museum of Canada. The storyteller sits in front of them with a microphone, dressed in a colourful patterned shirt, with a small pair of antlers coming out from their long curly blonde hair.

(Photo credits: Toronto Fringe Festival KidsFest.)

About the Toronto Fringe Festival

The Toronto Fringe Festival is Ontario’s largest theatre and performance festival, taking place around various venues in the city every July. Since 1989, the festival has been unjuried, meaning the shows get chosen by lottery rather than by a panel of jurists, opening the stage to all who have a story to share – from professional theatre makers to emerging and new theatre talent. It’s run by Toronto Fringe, a charitable arts organization that also produces the Next Stage Theatre Festival, which presents curated programming of previously produced works evolving to the next level of production. Toronto Fringe also offers year-round programming for youth, emerging artists, BIPOC artists, artists with disabilities and the performing arts community.

Illustrated poster for Rosamund: A New Musical. A woman with long honey brown hair standing in a magical forest, wielding flashing a sword, looks at a large tree behind her. The trees all bear glowing yellowish orb-like objects. Text at the top: Forget all you know about Sleeping Beauty.

(Photo credits: Toronto Fringe Festival. Chaos & Light’s Rosamund: A New Musical.)

Poster for Sex T-Rex's Crime After Crime, featuring photos and award accoldades. To the left, a blackish blue & white image of a man in 50s clothing, including a pork pie hat. Centre: A woman with long blonde hair wearing a suit, with money floating down on her. To the right: Two men in fighting stance, a helicopter and explosion above them.

(Photo credits: Toronto Fringe Festival. Sex T-Rex’s Crime After Crime (After Crime).)

Poster for Being Celine, featuring a photo of Laura Landauer as Celine Dion, a blonde woman dressed in a white flouffy gown, standing with arms gesturing outward in front of a background of red feathers. Floating above her are a bottle of Fuji water, a silver white high-heel shoe, a baby bottle, a bag of Lays Classic potato chips and a microphone.

(Photo credits: Toronto Fringe Festival. Laura Landauer’s Being Celine.)

Poster for Pretty Beast by Kazu Kusano, featuring a Japanese woman striking a super hero pose, right arm flexing bicep and left hand on waist, wearing red t-shirt and a red, white and black patterned fabric as a cape. Red and yellow comic strip background with white text: Hilarious & Touching. Born into darkness, comedy is her superpower. kazukusano.com

(Photo credits: Toronto Fringe Festival. Kazu Kusano’s Pretty Beast.)

Event details

Hosted by: Toronto Fringe

Type of event: theatre & performance festival

Shows & companies: Various; please see the list of shows.

Dates & times: The Festival runs from Wednesday, July 3 – Sunday, July 14, 2024. Dates & times for individual performances vary; please consult the schedule.

Duration: Varies; please consult the schedule above for individual performance running times.

Cost: A C$3.00 service fee is included in each price. Tickets may be purchased at the door – however, some performances will sell out in advance, so advance booking is recommended for popular shows. Passes are transferable. See the booking link below for other ticket details.

Individual tickets: C$18.00 General, $13.00 Previews (See the Program Guide for preview dates) & Daily Discounts, $9.00 Teens (age 13-18) and $6.00 Kids (12 & under, for KidsFest shows only)
6-show pass: C$84.00
10-show pass: C$140.00
20-show pass: C$280.00
30-show pass: C$360.00

Locations:

Performances take place at various venues around Toronto, ON, Canada; please see the venue page for locations and consult the schedule above for individual performance venues.
Fringe Patio, the Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, ON, M5S 2M7, Canada.
KidsFest Club, St. Volodymyr Institute, 620 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5S 2H4, Canada

Program guide: See the online program guide, plus find locations to pick up a paper guide.

Booking link: Book your tickets and passes here.

Contact Details: Toronto Fringe; 416-966-1062, general@fringetoronto.com, fringetoronto.com

Content warning: Please consult the individual performance synopses in the program guide.

Accessibility: General info here. For venue-specific accessibility info, please consult the individual performance venues.

COVID-19 policy: Stay home if you feel sick, have any symptoms, or have had a recent close contact with COVID-19. The Fringe does not have understudies, so please take every precaution to protect our staff, volunteers, and artists from becoming ill. Exchanges for tickets are available if the request is made before the performance takes place. A $2 exchange fee will be applied.

Refund policy: No refunds. 100% of ticket revenue goes directly to the artists, so Toronto Fringe does not offer refunds on tickets or passes.