Gerald Osborn has a soft spot for festival goers who get sucked into bad Fringe shows, or at least for people who get stuck attending dud after dud. After all, he’s been working at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival since 1989 and is a prolific playwright, putting on 19 shows over the years. He’s also the official Fringe Historian, a role he started in January of this year. He works to preserve the memory of one of the city’s most popular festivals, working on timelines and developing fringe history bites — tidbits about the festival that function as the festival’s hold music. He’s already thinking about the Fringe’s 50th anniversary, still six years away. So, yes, he empathizes with those of us who’ve rolled the dice on a handful of shows and walked away disappointed.
One particular memory embodies just how frustrating it can be. A few years ago, Osborn was working the box office when a distraught man came through the doors looking for a bit of help, searching for someone, anyone, who could help a weary arts patron.
“I know you can’t do anything about this but I just saw my fifth fringe show and it’s awful like all the others,” Osborn recalls the man saying.
There wasn’t much they could do beyond recommend a few popular shows to the unfortunate soul with the bad Fringe luck.
Terrible stagings are part of the Fringe experience. With more than 200 shows on offer there are bound to be a few bombs, a couple bad experiences and shows that don’t quite live up to expectation. “It’s like going to a restaurant with a huge menu,” says Osborn, acknowledging that big lineups can be overwhelming for some festivalgoers.
Osborn has seen a lot of change in his time at the Fringe, from the size and complexity of the festival, to the way they run the artist billet program (designed to provide housing for out-of-town Fringe performers), to the nature of Bring Your Own Venues (BYOV).
“Originally, the BYOV concept was something unique, so you would have, for example, Midsummer Night’s Ice Dream at the Granite Curling Club. BYOV were really interesting pieces,” says Osborn. BYOVs have resulted in additional venues being added to accommodate the growing number of shows; there are 40 venues at this year’s festival.
Even how shows are selected for the festival has changed. The Fringe started as a first-come, first-served model where artists lined up, sometimes for days, to secure a spot. In the ‘90s they moved to a lottery system, drawing winners in November before the festival.
His years with Fringe have given Osborn some clarity and insight into making the most of the festival, a few tips to help festivalgoers have a good time while wandering Old Strathcona in late August. His first piece of advice? Beer tents, on top of serving delicious adult beverages, are a place to strike up conversations with fellow Fringers and exchange recommendations.
He also points out that many shows are making the “festival circuit,” performing across the country before coming to Edmonton. Checking for reviews from Saskatoon or Winnipeg Fringe festivals, or even social media posts, he says, can give patrons a leg up on shows before they even arrive.
“What’s great with social media and the internet is that a lot of people can google reviews of the show,” says Osborn. “It’s not a vacuum. There are ways of tracking some of that stuff.”
The age of the internet also brought online ticketing, streamlining the ticket-buying process but eliminating lineup culture. In the early years of the festival, tickets had to be purchased in person, where you would probably strike up a conversation with someone in line about which shows to see, and which ones to maybe avoid.
His last word of advice? Pace your schedule. Give plenty of time for breaks and avoid fringe-binging. Every year there are the Fringe diehards — avid fans intent on making the most of the daylight and filling their festival schedule. But a little breathing room can help get you through the festival without depleting your energy reserves. “The person you are at midnight is not the person you were at noon. I doff my cap if they are going to get that many shows in one day.”
The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival runs Aug. 14 to 24, 2025.
