Durham Fringe Festival 2025 runs from 23 to 27 July with over 100 shows across nine venues in the city centre.
Paul Levy caught up with fringe director Stephen Cronin who was visiting Brighton Fringe.
The programme includes theatre comedy dance music and spoken word with a clear focus on new and independent work. Most performances last under an hour and are scheduled in tight rotation allowing audiences to see multiple shows in one day.
Venues are all within walking distance and include black box theatres, performances in pub and cafe spaces and studio spaces. Artists apply directly and keep the majority of their ticket sales through a fixed revenue share model.
This is a very human scale fringe with community values at its heart. Paul Levy says: “In our view this is a proper fringe, set up the right scale for the city it lives in. When Fringe Review reviewed at this Fringe for the first time in 2024, there was no shortage of quality shows to write reviews about.”
Tickets are priced per show with discounts for students and low income audiences. The festival encourages local attendance as well as visiting audiences from the North East and beyond.
Browse the fringe programme here.
