“I have so many amazing memories and moments from Fringe,” Kerri Glasscock, Sydney Fringe Festival director, tells Broadsheet. “Sitting on a bus pretending I was in the movie Speed, laughing till I cried watching a man eating spaghetti, sobbing for real in a show about grief, watching a five-hour breakup (sounds awful but was hilarious), cooking a Jamie Oliver 30-minute meal in front of a live audience, eating dinner in silence with 400 other people.”

Sydney Fringe Festival is hard to describe to the uninitiated. But what we can tell you is that the 2024 festival kicks off on September 1 for a month of theatre, circus, music, comedy, dance and all sorts of other creative arts. The large-scale, citywide festival has been running for over a decade now, and it only keeps evolving. Case in point: 2024 marks the introduction of a Queer Hub, at the new queer museum Qtopia, to help raise the voices of LGBTQIA+ artists.

“We now have multiple festival hubs all across the city and have found over the years that increasingly they are being shaped around genre and community as opposed to just simply being a place where audiences can see a high volume of work,” says Glasscock. “We have always had lots of queer work in our festival but never a single place where we could celebrate it holistically and draw focus to it. As soon as Qtopia opened we knew we wanted to partner with them to create a brand new hub.”

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More than half the works shown at the festival are brand new, meaning they somewhat reflect the current state of the world. Glasscock says even though there isn’t a set festival theme, certain concepts rise to the surface. “The program provides this fantastic snapshot of how people are feeling and what they are focusing on.” This year that includes works themed around identity, with artists “examining their place in the world today”. Shows featuring active participation have also been on the rise this year, in which audiences become part of the work itself, or anyone – despite their arts experience or lack thereof – are encouraged to take part.

“This is really exciting for me as there is a democratisation around cultural participation that is firmly embedded in the ethos of Fringe and we are seeing that translate into the works within the festival,” says Glasscock.

This year’s festival has more than 400 events featuring 1800 performers across 12 festival hubs. It’s a lot. So we asked Glasscock for her top five picks to help you wade through.

Plenty of Fish in the Sea

This work won my Festival Director’s Award last year and I am so thrilled it is back, because it was only here for five performances last year and so many people missed it! Clockfire Theatre Company is an incredible local physical theatre company who make the most beautiful, magical, unique and absurd theatre that is hilarious and moving all at the same time. They are currently at Edinburgh Fringe receiving more five-star reviews so don’t miss this one.

Drink Rum With Expats

Sh!t Theatre are a contemporary performance collective from the UK and one of my all-time favourite companies. They make wild, political, hilarious, poignant, immediate theatre that punches you in the guts while giving you a real good time. They haven’t performed in Sydney since 2018. This is a work that was commissioned to be performed for one night in a small pub in Malta and has since gone on to tour the world because it is simply wonderful.

Voices of Joan

I am very excited about this one-woman show that is a retelling of the story of Joan of Arc. It’s about gender, truth-telling and power with a fantastic performance by Newcastle artist Janie Gibson. Janie has taken fragments of words and texts from throughout history and Joan’s trial to create her own version that speaks to us now.

Otto & Astrid

This duo are hilarious, so if you’re after a super fun night out, this is the one for you. These utterly dysfunctional siblings are comedy gold and excellent musicians. They have played everywhere, including Glastonbury, and now we get to have them at Sydney Fringe, so we are very excited.

Helios

Wright & Grainger from the UK are Fringe circuit legends who create the most magical spoken-word performances that transport you to ancient worlds in modern times. I have seen so many of their shows and keep coming back to them because their work has a lasting impact on you. It hits you in the heart and they have the most wonderful ability to find sparks of joy even in the most tragic moments. This is their new work. Don’t miss it.

Sydney Fringe Festival runs in various locations around the city from September 1–30.

sydneyfringe.com