Edmonton is known as Festival City for a reason. While many Edmontonians enjoy trying out a few each year, every festival has its die-hard fans who go all out. For Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival superfans, the 10 days in August are the highlight of the summer — one they book vacation time for.
Erin Tordoff has been Fringe-ing since she moved to Edmonton in 2013. In a typical year, she sees as many as 20 plays. Catching all those shows means booking time off work and carefully planning every block of time. It involves logistics and a conversation she has with herself.
“‘This one looks good. It’s at this site. If I get a scooter, I can get over to this one by 10:15.’ You just kind of build it out based on what kind of buffer you need and pack in as many [shows] as you can,” says Tordoff, who bases her choices around child-care needs and available days, staying open to different kinds of shows.
Another fanatical Fringe-goer, Cody Bondarchuk, relies on a spreadsheet to keep track of all the shows he’s seeing.
Erik Einsiedel loves sitting down with the printed guide to the festival’s offerings and treating it like a catalogue of possibilities. If you’re like him, printed guides are available for purchase for $15 at the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns Administrative Office, and are for sale at various other locations around town. [There is a list on the festival’s website.]
This year’s guide shows you more than 200 shows — and Janice Gerbrandt is seeing almost a quarter of them. She plans to go to around 50 shows this year, making her the most prolific of the Fringe-goers we spoke to. She also maintains a spreadsheet of shows to see, but likes to be open to “serendipitous moments.” She’s been attending the festival since 2011, seeing more and more shows each year.
“The right show at the right time can be life changing,” Gerbrandt says.
“I like to keep the last weekend free so then I can start slotting in anything that I’ve heard has become an overnight success throughout the run of the festival,” says Bondarchuk. “This year I shortlisted about 40 shows knowing that I’m not going to get to all of those.”
The Fringe is much more than the shows, though. Tordoff, Bondarchuk, Einsiedel and Gerbrandt all emphasize the importance of checking out the Fringe grounds, throwing the buskers a few dollars and spending time on Whyte Avenue.
“The Fringe grounds are such a chill place to hang out. I have been a lot more conscious this year about building in time before or after shows to socialize,” says Bondarchuk, whose careful scheduling includes time between shows to catch up with friends and discuss shows they’ve seen.
Each of the frequent Fringers we spoke to emphasizes building time into your schedule to get from place to place, with venues in different parts of the city. Tordoff and Gerbrandt have both found e-scooters to be a lifesaver for getting to shows on time.
Likewise, Einsiedel advises Fringe-goers to get started early. “Plan the logistics of your Fringe,” he says, “from Google Maps and Street View to checking where the parking is and where the theatre is.”
Einsiedel likes the tangibility of a paper program when strategizing his festival choices, and he likes the fact that he can make notes on it based on what people are saying about the shows. “You talk to your friends and family who’ve seen some shows and narrow your focus.”
He says that as well as owning a stack of old Fringe guides, he collects printed programs of every show he sees. Einsiedel also has a wide circle of friends in the theatre business and makes a point to see their shows.
“For a long time, I’d go see my friends’ shows, wait for them in the lobby after the show, and get them to sign my program,” he says. “There’s something I really like about having a program that I can hold.”
“Even if I go see a show and I don’t like it, I still respect those actors and that crew for making the effort,” Einsiedel says. “That’s a big commitment … people choose to invest a lot of their time and life into this production.”
If you approach the Fringe as a gateway to community, you’ll supercharge your own experience. “Talk to people in line!” Gerbrandt says. “They’re all there for the same reason as you, which is the love of theatre. It’s the community that keeps me coming back,” she adds. “It’s never a bad day. It’s so joyous.”
“It adds a vibrancy to the city,” says Tordoff. “It’s kind of the capstone of the summer here.”
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival | Aug. 13-23, 2026 | Various venues around Edmonton | fringetheatre.ca
