With their tongue firmly in their cheek, the organisers claim that the origins of annual arts festival, the Bath Fringe, go back to the sideshows which sprang up around important Temple festivals during Roman times.
In some ways, Bath Fringe Festival was born out of the Walcot Festivals of the '70s and '80s, which mixed experimental theatre and progressive rock with ‘happenings’ and eco-activism. Bath Fringe was created as a counterbalance to the more established and mainstream Bath International Music Festival.
Bath Fringe Festival is now among one of the oldest continually-operating events in England and features around 200 events. Taking place around the late May Bank Holiday, it runs for 17 days, at the end of May to the beginning of June.
Staying true to its origins, it’s a festival of all the arts, with few rules as to what should be in or out – it's what people want to do, and what venues want to put on.
