Australia's Biggest Little Fringe Festival Marks TEN YEARS of Magic
Newcastle will reach a cultural milestone in 2025 when its very own fringe festival celebrates its 10th anniversary from 20 to 30 March.
Widely acknowledged by the industry to be the most significant and fastest-growing grass-roots regional arts festival in NSW, the Newcastle Fringe Festival (NFF) truly is Australia’s Biggest Little Fringe. Attendance in 2024 missed hitting the 10,000 mark by a whisker at 9,454, up from an initial attendance of 660 in 2016 when it all began.
Inspired by a visit to the granddaddy of fringe festivals, Edinburgh Fringe, in 2014, the founder of NFF, Phil Aughey, set about creating a Fringe in his hometown, opening in January 2016 with 21 shows in five venues over ten days. Ten years later, these figures have grown to 235 shows featuring 97 acts and 612 artists performing at 15 venues over the same number of days. The organisation was incorporated in 2019 with a volunteer board appointed and not-for-profit status realised to take NFF to the next level of success.
“Performing at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe proved to be a life-changing experience for me,” said Phil.
“It fulfilled a personal ambition but also opened my eyes to the difficulties artists face in staging their work, even at a Fringe Festival.
“The Fringe movement is about the democratisation of art, where anyone can perform. There are no selection criteria, no restrictions or censorship, any genre is accepted, and there’s no need to be commercially viable."
"It’s art for art’s sake and a wonderful platform for emerging artists."
The difficulty for artists at Fringe Festivals worldwide is the stiff competition for venues, accommodation, facilities, tech support and marketing. When thousands of shows are being performed across a city, such as in Edinburgh and Adelaide, it can make the experience unaffordable for many artists. When it came time to set up his own Fringe venture, Phil was determined to avoid this challenge by keeping it small enough to maximise audience sizes.
“If the artists don’t make money, you don’t have a Fringe. The modus operandi for NFF is to be as economically viable to the artists as possible. We source the venues for our artists and provide general marketing and basic tech support to help defray the costs of performing.”
Phil funded the festival himself for the first two years from his life savings, but once the organisation was incorporated in 2019, the injection of energy, skills and professionalism the new board brought to the festival enabled a trajectory of
growth that saw artist earnings reaching over $125,000 in 2024. In 2023, that figure was $80,000, up from $67,000 in 2022. This growth and reach of the festival has garnered slightly more support from sponsors and government grants, although still not enough to become self-sustaining. NFF Chair Brooke Twyford is keen to see the volunteer organisation focus on sustainability to secure reliable income streams for the future.
“Moving forward, our open access model remains important to nurture local emerging artists and improve quality, diversity, and accessibility of the program,” said Brooke.
“We need to ramp up the marketing volume, grow audiences for artists and grow our Fringe fan base to increase visitation to Newcastle and the organisation's overall sustainability.
“We’re very grateful to our principal sponsors, who include the City of Newcastle, Destination NSW, AGL, Costin Roe Consulting and Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS). Our supporting partners are just as key to our success, including intouch Magazine, Newcastle Live, Newcastle Herald, HunterHunter, Hello Hamilton, NewFM, Newy with Kids, and Eventotron.”
The longest-running sponsor of NFF is PWCS, who came on board in 2017 and has witnessed the extraordinary growth and development of the organisation.
“The NFF has become a must-see event in Newcastle, showcasing a wide array of local talent while attracting national and international acts,” said Hennie du Plooy, CEO of PWCS.
“It contributes significantly to the city's vibrancy and draws many people to Newcastle.
“We have proudly supported the festival for many years, and we congratulate the committee for continually expanding the range of acts and, in recent years, providing family-friendly entertainment so the whole community can get involved.”
The family-friendly entertainment that du Plooy refers to is the free family event NFF has staged for the past two years. This year, the event will be known as Fringe Feast, a collaboration between NFF, Hello Hamilton, and the City of Newcastle. It will be delivered under the Special Business Rate Program.
Fringe Feast – Unleash your appetite - will be the festival's official free and ‘delicious’ launch event on 15 March, from 5pm to 9pm. Patrons can feast on scrumptious local dining options and experience tantalising Fringe performances from the 2025 program, including The Pretty Amazing Jono, The Alchemy of Arts, Samba Frog, Les Divine Folles à Newy, Eliane Morel: Love, Drinking and Fairy Tales and Ruffians. Bring the kids!
Fringe venues in Hamilton include the Kent, Young People’s Theatre, Hamilton Uniting Church, Son of a Gun and The Exchange Hotel. The Newcastle Hotel in Islington will host music and comedy. Across Newcastle, there’s Bernie’s Bar to support the LGBTQI+ community and NFF staples The Royal Exchange and The Grand Hotel. Newcastle Museum will host science comedy shows, and Souths Merewether will feature international artists. See kids shows, theatre, and dance
at the Dungeon in Adamstown. Flamingos Live in Lambton will join the Fringe fanfare to showcase cabaret and burlesque.
There’s a definite flavour of ‘youth’ to the line-up showcasing the talent of young people. This is the premise for Newcastle
Next: Emerging Artists – an inaugural event celebrating Newcastle’s young musicians, featuring soloists and bands from local schools performing 20-minute sets.
Echoes of Expression is the theatrical equivalent. A captivating new work that showcases a curated collection of monologues performed by a selection of Newcastle’s most talented Class of 2024 drama students. Pocketful of Stories:
Tales of the Sea by Claire Thomas, who took out the Best Newcastle Show at the 2024 NFF, will delight with her young cast at Young People’s Theatre.
Even the popular Choir Day held at the Hamilton Uniting Church on Saturday, 29 March, features the sensational talents of the Hunter Singers aged 12 to 21. Conducted by Kim Sutherland OAM and Charissa Ferguson, the group is preparing to embark on an international tour. Also on Choir Day are the all-women Hummingsong Community Choirs, Sundara and Meraki, plus audience favourites, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and the award-winning Newcastle Chamber Choir, which are both returning. The Under Construction Mental Health Choir and The Callaghan Singers round out the feel-good, uplifting day.
Keeping with the theme of youth, there is a strong lineup of kids' shows, ten in all. Don’t miss The Creative Creatures Kids
Show, an interactive, intergalactic adventure that will captivate your imagination with whimsical scenery, extravagant UV glow costumes, magical props, and catchy songs. The Giant Balloon Show promises to be a family favourite. Winning multiple international awards, this hilarious spectacle delivers feverous balloon sculptures, high-energy comic performance and a banging 80s soundtrack that delivers ‘a frenzy of controlled chaos’. Then there’s Bubble Show in Space. Combining an outer space adventure with the best bubble tricks, amazing puppetry and laugh-out loud slapstick, these multi-award-winning performers have featured on Australia's, China’s, Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Got Talent shows!
Proof that it’s not all about the kids is the sexy, funny, and downright raunchy offerings in the genre of cabaret and burlesque, with no less than 20 acts to set your temperature soaring. The Exchange Hotel features Madame Martha, the winner of Best Cabaret at the Melbourne Fringe. Step into an underground Parisian club of glamour where music sweeps
you off your feet, drag divas serenade you in three languages, and burlesque goddesses whisk you away to a realm of intoxicating elegance. Or maybe Barbie Burlesque rocks your Barbie World? Also at the Exchange Hotel, it’s a queer, camp, R-rated Barbie party.
Venture to Flamingos Live for more burlesque with NFF favourites Red Light Confidential. It wins awards every year for its incredible variety show featuring local and international burlesque, circus, cabaret, music, and comedy performers. It's the perfect late night cherry on your Fringe-flavoured cake. Also at Flamingos Live is Society of Slumber, a mixed genre performance art cabaret presenting a golden era jazz opera and Les Divine Folles à Newy, a home-grown show offering plenty of sparkle, stunning showgirls and powerhouse vocals in a journey that blends the sophistication of Paris and the charm of our beloved Newy!
At every Fringe Festival, comedy is king, and this year is no different with 21 comedy shows. Highlights include comedy legend Jean Kittson who returns to the stage with her intimate and only occasionally strident new show - Jean Kittson Bangs On. She guarantees a delightful journey, including detours, diversions, and deviant behaviour to make you feel good, and she appears at Souths Merewether for two shows only. At the Kent Deco Lounge, Cancer Card by comedian and cabaret artist Becky Steepe delivers a surprisingly hilarious story about what happens when you’re dealt the cancer card and have to bluff your way to a win. Theatre highlights include Logie awardwinning Rob Carlton with his show Willing
Participant. Directed by theatre and screen legend Darren Gilshenan, it was a hit at Adelaide Fringe and is billed as a storytelling show, ‘beautiful, funny, heartbreaking and illuminating.’
Featured at NFF’s longest-running venue, The Royal Exchange, are two shows by Marcel Cole – the return of The Ukulele Man, the true story of wartime comedian and ukulele legend George Formby, which won in the Best Theatre category at last year’s Fringe and Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, a brand-new physical comedy show inspired by the life of Charlie Chaplin. If you like your theatre a little more hard-hitting, try Newcastle’s own Knock and Run Theatre and their one-man show, Circumference of a Squirrel – a riff with an inner tube - a profoundly moving exploration of grief, regret, sorrow, loss and growth.
The NFF program is so full this year that it’s impossible to mention every show. Surprisingly, the genre that has the most shows is music. Returning musos include Ruffians, Newcastle's one and only bright red punk-cabaret septet, who promise a sensory overload of dazzling costumes, heavenly vocal harmonies, sleazy horn lines and face-melting guitar solos. It
wouldn’t be a NFF without Clark Gormley performing – the local artist has performed at every NFF since it began in 2016, and this year sees the return of Nerds and Music Do the Fringe with his fellow nerd, Wayne Thompson captivating audiences with their eccentricity, wit, wordplay, sharp alliteration and quirky folk music. And everyone’s favourite local comedian and talented muso, Eddy Rockefeller, brings her new show Beats and Banter to the stage with her killer vocals and sharp, hilarious stories of single life.
Depending on your favourite flavour, other musical highlights include Annaliesa Rose Sings the Peter Allen Songbook. Annaliesa’s unique take on Peter Allen's classics is critically acclaimed. Don’t miss the dinner show at Son of a Gun. 3Degrees: Hip Hop & Horns is a face-melting, booty-quaking hip hop and horns collective that has taken Newy by storm
with its global sound and deep local roots. The Daisy Rifles bring brooding emotions from Brisbane that whisper of loss and love with raw, simple, blues-infused songs and dark textures reminiscent of ancient songlines.
Honourable mentions include Newymation Short Film Extravaganza, which celebrates local animation, VFX, and game artistry through stunning visuals, imaginative storytelling, and the return of Eliane Morel’s Disenchanted: A Cabaret of Twisted Fairy Tales. This award-winning show set in a Parisian Salon returns with fresh costumes, topical updates, new tunes, and new characters.
It’s impossible to feature every act here, but we recommend downloading the program from the website at www.newcastlefringe.com.au and studying it carefully. Tickets go on sale on 1 February, with prices beginning at $10 and maxing out at $43, with most sitting between $25 and $30. Call your friends, invite your family and experience affordable, authentic, surprising and totally different entertainment together. Do a venue hop or stay in one venue each night. However you want to do it – fitting in as many shows as possible is half the fun of a Fringe Festival. It’s your festival, Newcastle. Support it and enjoy it.
