Durham Fringe Festival 2025
Durham Fringe Showcase
Durham Fringe Festival, hosted by Eden Ballantyne
Genre: Variety Show
Venue: Palace Green
Festival: Durham Fringe Festival
Low Down
Get a taste of Durham Fringe 2025 in a free showcase – an opportunity to see a host of acts from the fringe programme squeezed into 60 minutes.
Review
The Durham Fringe Festival Family Showcase offers a curated taste of what the wider programme has in store. It is not a full meal, but a series of well selected bites designed to whet the appetite. Held in the tented space of Venue One on Palace Green, this particular showcase leaned more towards an adult audience, though other versions in the programme cater more directly to younger audiences or are located in indoor settings.
This year’s showcase was introduced and hosted by Eden Ballantyne, a professional storyteller, performer and educator who handles the role with confidence, warmth and a genuine sense of care. He links the acts together with clarity and good humour, offering just enough information about each one to spark interest without giving too much away. His tone is informative without being formal, relaxed without losing focus. That combination of educator and entertainer makes him well suited to this role.
The event included excerpts and snippets from across the Fringe programme. Among the highlights was A Tapestry of Song, a musical piece from Jessa Liversidge that builds on her 2024 success and expands beyond the repertoire of Carole King. This year’s version includes music from the likes of Sting and demonstrates her ability to move between emotional registers with control and ease.
Also featured was 3 Minutes Inside My Brain from Jenifer Jordan. Madcap, clownish and rooted in intelligent material, it struck a tone that combined the absurd with the observational. Delivered with energy and a sense of self-awareness, Jordan’s performance added an extra layer of texture to the showcase and balanced some of the more musically focused acts.
The concept of a Fringe showcase works well. It allows the audience to sample rather than commit, to experience contrast rather than consistency. Comedy, character humour, cabaret and stand up all featured, and the format worked smoothly. The tent provided an open and relaxed setting. The flow between acts was seamless, and the technical aspects were handled with minimal fuss.
I managed to steal the running order, so you might want to look these up…
One notable absence was more serious or dramatic theatre. While the mood of the showcase was light and accessible, the programme as a whole includes deeper and more complex work. Including just one or two more serious pieces in this selection would have shown that range more fully. Audiences are open to it. They are willing to lean in when the tone shifts. Other highlights for me included Atomic Cabaret and LORCA and Margot. But the quality was very high across all the acts.
The showcase format gives good value for money. It is also a practical way to help visitors navigate a festival of over one hundred shows. With limited time, limited budgets and a range of interests, the showcase provides not just entertainment but also orientation. The chance to see a range of acts in a single session makes it easier to make informed choices.
For anyone unsure what to see at Durham Fringe, this event is a useful place to start. You are likely to leave with favourite moments already forming in your mind and a few shows circled in the programme. There is a box office nearby and decisions can be made on the spot.
Showcase events like this one make the festival more accessible. They offer a flavour, not the full dish, but it is enough to tempt. Variety is a strength here and the curation makes sure that what you see is varied but not random. You leave with a sense of the festival’s tone, its character and its potential.
This is not just a show. It is a signpost. And it points in many directions worth exploring.
