Nelson Fringe Festival

**UPDATE 14.8.20**

Kia ora Fringe Friends & Family,

Thank you all for your messages of support and hope at this tricky time. Our hard-working Festival folk have made a big decision today. One that we hope you will understand and get behind.

The Bay Landscapes Nelson Fringe Festival 2020 is going online. Over the next few days (as long as we remain at Level 2), we will be inviting our local shows to come to NCMA and have their work filmed in the already (and arduously) set-up theatre. Our non-local artists who have filmable shows, will be busy capturing their work digitally too. We will all do everything we can to create a fun, cheeky Festival online, that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home.

WHY?
This decision was not made lightly. After setting up for a Level 2 Fringe experience in the theatre today, the team began to have doubts. Out of town artists had begun to cancel and others were expressing their anxiety. The Festival vibe in a Level 2 environment was all but gone. We were advised that all of our public and artist special events needed to be cancelled. We couldn't run a bar or do anything that would invite congregating. Issues with artists sharing a dressing room arose. Not to mention the huge amounts of uncertainty around what level we would be in after Friday. For these reasons and more, we made the difficult decision as outlined above.

BUT... we plan to put our Fringe-y hearts and souls into making this the very BEST online Festival we can possibly muster. We refuse to allow this pandemic to disconnect us or stop us from sharing art with one another. We can do this!

TICKET HOLDERS
If you have a ticket or tickets to Fringe shows already, then simply sit back, relax and you will be emailed a link to the Festival where you can enjoy as many of our online Fringe shows as you can possibly take in. As you can understand, a lot of time and money has gone into this event and as things stand we find ourselves in a tricky situation financially. The Festival hopes (with our breath held) that you are happy to redirect your Fringe spend to this online event, but we do understand if you are not in a position to do this. For a refund, please contact Eventfinda and they will sort you out. :)
Otherwise, hold tight Nelson Fringe lovers, we're going into the unknown together and we're doing it with courage and tenacity and a sense of play that has got to be good for us! Our online Festival will run from the 21st - 25th of August, 2020. Festival passes will be available through Eventfinda for anyone who doesn't already hold a ticket, in the next few days.

Thank you all. Your support means everything to us right now and we hope that you are all doing okay. Kia kaha, we can do this, together.

Check out our Facebook page, Eventfinda or www.nelsonfringe.co.nz (http://www.nelsonfringe.co.nz/) for more info as it becomes available and we'll see you at the Fringe... online! #getyourfringeon