Eclectic performances and demonstrations at SOU's Oregon Fringe Festival

Oregon Fringe Festival seeking applicants for week-long exhibition

The application deadline for the Oregon Fringe Festival – a distinctive blend of visual, musical, and theatre arts presentations – is Dec. 30. Interested parties can apply online here.

Started in 2014, the Oregon Fringe Festival (OFF), is an Oregon Center for the Arts-funded showcase of SOU students’ creative work. It includes presentations of music, visual art, theatre, dance, creative writing and spoken word, and is built to expand as needed. The festival invites artists from all stages of their careers – from beginners to award-winners – to mingle, network, and perform.

“Our mission is simple: to provide a platform for free expression, and work to secure a tolerant space for the sharing of ideas through story,” the OFF website says.

The six-day arts celebration will start on April 21, but applications to be a part of next spring’s Fringe Festival will be open only until Dec. 30. Those presenting at the festival – which is free and open to the public – will have a unique chance to get their work seen by professionals in their fields. Non-student professionals seeking to present at OFF are allowed to ask for donations to help recoup their costs of performing.

Applications are reviewed by the OFF director and a group of SOU students from the Theatre, Music, Visual Arts, and Emerging Media and Digital Arts departments. Late applications will not be considered.

Accepted applicants will participate in a production meeting to plan the logistics of their show and how it fits into the festival schedule before April. Last year’s OFF included 70 performances with an average audience size of 19 people, but organizers hope to decrease the number of competing performances at this year’s festival in an effort to boost the size of each audience.

The festival is partnered with Levity Circus Collective, Case Coffee Roasters, Jackson County Library Services, The Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, Three Penny Mercantile and Jefferson Public Radio.

Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer