Chelsea Fringe
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Home
What’s on
At a Glance
Chelsea Fringe 2023
Chelsea Fringe 2022
Chelsea Fringe 2021
Chelsea Fringe 2020
About
News
Who we are
History
Our Team
Thanks to Our Supporters
Press
YouTube Channel
FAQ
Contact
Get Involved
Register an event
Volunteer
Log in
Press Key Facts
The Chelsea Fringe is an alternative garden festival celebrating community growing initiatives, outdoor performance, botanical art, walks, talks and events during nine days in late May
The first Chelsea Fringe Festival was held in 2012. We have run every year since then, even during lockdown, when we held two online festivals. We have now seen more than 1,800 events created for the festival
Projects range from community-garden events to avant-garde art installations, from walks, talk and performances, to workshops, dinners, demonstrations and on-street ‘happenings’. Nearly all the events are free
The Fringe, a community interest company (CIC), is unsponsored, unfunded and volunteer-run
The World Festival Network has called the Chelsea Fringe ‘the fastest-growing Fringe festival ever’
Individuals, community groups and larger organisations create the events, supported by the Fringe’s team of volunteers
There have been a number of ‘satellite’ Chelsea Fringe Festivals – in Cambridge, Cornwall, Bristol, Henley-on-Thames, Kent, the Isle of Mull; Fukuoka, Nagoya in Japan; Argentina, Canada, Poland, Italy and Seattle
The Chelsea Fringe has attracted national and international media coverage, including BBC and ITV television news, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio London, as well as articles/listings in all the major broadsheet newspapers. The Fringe has been particularly well supported by the Daily Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, the Evening Standard and the Guardian
The Chelsea Fringe is a true Fringe festival in that it operates on the Fringe of an established event or festival [in this case, Chelsea Flower Show], and it works on an ‘open-access principle’. If it’s on-topic, legal and interesting (this last being the key point), then it’s in
Anyone can enter a project in the Chelsea Fringe; most projects pay £40 (volunteer/community rate). There is a discounted rate for events signed up before the end of March
There is an increasing national and international component to the Fringe. In its first year a number of international artists participated, and the intention has always been to spread the Fringe ideal more widely
The Chelsea Fringe operates with the blessing of the Royal Horticultural Society, organisers of Chelsea Flower Show, but is entirely independent
The Fringe does not last for just 9 days. We continue to encourage the spread of ‘fringe gardening’ (as we like to call it) all year round
The Fringe was an original idea by founder-director Tim Richardson
FAQ
For our FAQ with Tim Richardson please visit
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