Founded in 1988 by the Manitoba Theatre Centre with Rick McNair as the first Executive Director, the festival has three key principles: 1. Festival is non-juried; 2. Artists have freedom to present whatever they want on stage; and 3. 100% of the box office goes directly to the artists. In its first year ticket sales were 14,000 across nine days of performances. That figure was 26,000 in 1989 - year two of the festival. It climbed to 44,709 in 1999 and was over 60,000 in 2001. Chuck McEwen, former director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, is the current executive producer, and has been in charge since 2008. The festival's venues are centred in Winnipeg's historic Exchange District with the Old Market Square serving as the outdoor stage location. But as the festival has grown there are venues outside that district but still close to Winnipeg's downtown. The Winnipeg Fringe Festival is modelled on the Edmonton Fringe Festival and provides several venues for performing companies, but some companies arrange their own venues, which is more like what occurs at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Regardless, all venues have paid technicians and volunteer ticket sellers and ushers. The performing companies at the festival are both local and from across Canada and around the world. For example, the 2005 festival featured performers from France, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa as well as across Canada and the United States. , 2006. During the Fringe, the front façade of the theatre is covered in hundreds of handbills and posters for various plays.Paid attendance briefly set a record high for North America in 2009 with 81,565 tickets sold, surpassing the then previous record of 77,700 set at the 2006 Edmonton Fringe. However, the Edmonton Fringe festival currently holds the North American record for 2011 with 104,142 tickets sold. The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre cancelled the 2020 Winnipeg Fringe Festival as a safety precaution in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 festival was scheduled to take place from July 15 to 26. RMTC considered rescheduling the event to late Summer or Fall but ultimately decided to cancel the physical event. Instead, the RMTC offered free online programming from July 14 to 17 beginning at 7PM nightly. The online festival featured local, national, and international programming including performances from Mike Delamont, Frances Koncan, the Coldhearts, Outside Joke, and Anjali Sandhu. Online festival programming was streamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Annual theme
The festival has a different theme each year. The theme in 2015 was "We're all here," where the blank was filled in variously. On the program, it was "mad," but on the website for Volunteers it was "friends." In 2014, "We like when you watch" was the theme. The Big Top was the theme in 2010, and other previous themes have been the F word, meaning "fringe," and James Bond. In 2012 there was no theme, as that was the 25th anniversary edition of the festival.
Attendance and Ticket Revenue
Year
Attendance
Ticket Revenue
Companies
2019
98,673
879,034
178
2018
103,251
890,624
178
2017
104,908
875,157
186
2016
105,000
--
--
2015
108,706
800,142
181
2014
104,859
761,522
--
2013
101,488
--
--
2012
100,621
686,188
--
2011
87,851
--
--
2010
86,717
--
--
Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award
The Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award was established by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights to recognize the best play written by a Manitoban and performed at the festival. The award was named in memory of Harry Rintoul, a noted playwright from Winnipeg who died in 2002.
2002: Kevin Klassen, Aftertaste
2003: Joseph Aragon, The Unlikely Sainthood of Madeline McKay
2004: Daniel Thau-Eleff, Three Ring Circus: Israel, the Palestinians and My Jewish Identity
