Chelsea Fringe
  • Home
  • What’s on
  • London Events
  • At a Glance
    • Current year
    • Chelsea Fringe 2020
    • Chelsea Fringe 2021
  • About
    • News
    • Who we are
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Thanks to Our Supporters
    • Press
    • Our YouTube Video Playlist
    • FAQ
    • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Want to register and add an event?
    • Volunteer
Log in
  • Home
  • What’s on
  • London Events
  • At a Glance
    • Current year
    • Chelsea Fringe 2020
    • Chelsea Fringe 2021
  • About
    • News
    • Who we are
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Thanks to Our Supporters
    • Press
    • Our YouTube Video Playlist
    • FAQ
    • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Want to register and add an event?
    • Volunteer
Log in

Everything you wanted to know about putting on a Fringe event but were too afraid to ask…

February 26th 2022

Harriot Lane Fox is part of the team that answers emails to the Chelsea Fringe inbox – she gives friendly advice on how to take part in the festival. Here she tells us more about what being a green-fingered impresario involves:

What kind of projects is the Fringe looking for? The Chelsea Fringe manifesto, if that doesn’t sound too up-the-revolution, is fantastically inclusive. We celebrate anything to do with gardens and gardening as long as it’s legal. The basic ingredient is plants, but that could be growing them – in allotments, on roundabouts, behind private front doors, up posh hotel walls; turning them into art or high fashion, serenading them, writing odes, telling stories, putting them on the menu and even into cocktail shakers. In fact, it’s probably easier to say what we’re not looking for (that would be burger vans; thanks for getting in touch but we’re not that kind of festival!).

What makes a good Fringe project? The best ones really engage their audiences, non-gardeners as well as the green-fingered. For instance, past Festivals have included a new medicinal garden where visitors could learn how to brew up potions, a celebration of sci-fi author John Wyndham with a triffid-making workshop, and a mobile ice-cream machine using community-grown plants to create crazy flavours. I know that if I get a tingle from the first email enquiry, so will our visitors when they read the listing.

The other ingredient is more practical. While we can help projects discover their inner Fringe-y-ness, in the end they have to be well organised and self-propelled.

What happens once my project is approved? We don’t have paid staff (or an office). Instead the Fringe operates a kind of buddy system. Once we think your project is suitable, we hook you up with a volunteer coordinator, to help you sign up. You will need to have all the listing nitty gritty finalised first, such as health and safety assessments and a picture ready, because what you put into the form is what goes online; “TBA” is not OK.

Early-birding is worth it, if you can. Registration gives projects access to tips on marketing and using social media, and our PR person will include you in the Fringe publicity campaign, bolstering your own. Our media partner BBC Radio London will begin previewing the festival once registration starts.

We usually have two public meetings, in London; a chance to pick the brains of fellow Fringers (Fringies? Fringe-istas?), for both co-ordinators and veteran project organisers. It’s unclear at the moment whether one or two meetings will go ahead, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Is it possible to set up a project outside London? Absolutely. The Chelsea Fringe has gone viral. We generally say you need five or six events in one place to qualify as a satellite fringe, and in 2019 (our last ‘live’ Festival) we added Cornwall, Henley-on-Thames, Kent and the Isle of Mull; Fukuoka and Nagoya in Japan. We have had events in Argentina and Canada, Ljubljana, Brighton, Bristol and Vienna and we would love to see more. There are also lone events and other exclusively online events.

Is there any funding or sponsorship available? Not unless you raise it yourself. To say we operate on a shoestring is to flatter the Fringe bank balance. That’s why we have so many different registration rates, to enable lone artists and garden designers, underfunded community groups and primary schools, and every size of charity to take part. This is a grass-roots festival.

Interested in taking part? Email info@chelseafringe.com

Recent posts

  • March 23rd 2022

    Got A Fringe Event In Mind But Nowhere To Put It On? How About Bankside Open Spaces?

  • February 26th 2022

    Everything you wanted to know about putting on a Fringe event but were too afraid to ask…

  • January 19th 2022

    Dates for 2022 are 21st to 29th May

Sign up for updates

Keep up to date on important fringe dates. We will not pass on your details to anyone else.

Instagram

Follow us on Instagram

Recent tweets

Retweet on TwitterChelsea Fringe Retweeted
May 15, 2022

Discover ‘Shakespeare in the Wild’ @hellolove Bloomsbury during #UrbanTreeFestival and @ChelseaFringe

Drop by, browse the shop, and book tickets to meet @BotanicalShax @mattfromlondon @TiCLme @DistrictHerbal #VereyHeadGardener @UrbanTreeFest

https://urbantreefestival.org/shakespeares-botany-in-bloomsbury

View on Twitter 1525779912203837440
Retweet on TwitterChelsea Fringe Retweeted
May 14, 2022

Wow! An evening foraging walk @GreatDixter next Saturday 21st May, 5-7pm, as part of the @ChelseaFringe with the fabulous Michael Wachter. Tickets can be booked @ChelseaFringe website. Can't wait!!

View on Twitter 1525371677747695616
May 13, 2022

Happy to meet you and hear about your fantastic sounding @ChelseaFringe event, 25 May, https://chelseafringe.com/event/gardening4health-a-gps-perspective-2022/

View on Twitter 1525211059719643136
Follow us on Twitter

Facebook

Chelsea Fringe

2 days ago

Chelsea Fringe
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Follow us on Facebook
  • What’s on
  • At a Glance
  • News
  • Who we are
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Thanks to Our Supporters
    • FAQ
    • YouTube Playlist
    • Press
  • Get Involved
    • Want to register and add an event?
    • Volunteer

Sign up for updates

Keep up to date on important fringe dates. We will not pass on your details to anyone else.

© Chelsea Fringe 2022

Scroll Up