Events for everyone to get ‘kick out of’

Dunedin Fringe Festival special events producer Dallas Synnott holds up a poster for We Remember...
Dunedin Fringe Festival special events producer Dallas Synnott holds up a poster for We Remember Wrong, a production by Dunedin playwright Jackson Rosie, which will premiere at this year’s festival. Photo: Peter McIntosh
A "provocative" take on the new Dunedin hospital build is among the events taking centre stage at this year’s upcoming Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Tickets for the festival officially went on sale last week and hard-copy booklets are scheduled to hit the city early next month.

Festival development manager Hannah Molloy said more than 90 events had been teed up for this year’s festival.

There was an amazing mix of art forms — including comedy, dance and circus — spread across all corners of the city, from Larnach Castle to Quarantine Island.

The organisers were all "so stoked" with the final lineup, Ms Molloy said.

"There's a real mix.

"There's stuff for families so we can get our young people starting to experience live performing arts and hopefully build that love of experiencing the arts from a really young age.

"We've got stuff all the way through — there's something for every member of our city community that they'll get a kick out of, one way or another."

Among the events listed is City Planners, described as a performance art piece "to provide pivotal and decisive input into the development of Dunedin’s new hospital".

Participants were invited to create their vision for the city’s new hospital using clay models, Ms Molloy said.

"It's a little bit provocative, might wind a few people up, but it'll be quite fun and really tactile."

Other events include CatGPT, a comedy about a man attempting to revive his beloved dead cat, Lentil, into a robotic AI life coach dubbed "L3NT1L".

Magic Tricks for Dogs is a family-friendly (and dog-friendly) event at the New Athenaeum Theatre to celebrate the nearly one-year anniversary of leashed dogs being allowed in areas of the centre city.

Ms Molloy said she hoped attendees would take a risk at this year’s festival.

"Fringe is about experimentation, and I think that's really important for the audience to embrace as well.

"That's my hope for Dunedin audiences, that they'll look at some stuff and see if they feel brave enough to take a risk."

The festival will run from March 12 to 22.

tim.scott@odt.co.nz

 

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