The annual festival has been a stand-out success in its new format in the centre of town.
No festival looks better in our Victorian street urchin village than the Fringe.
It was a brave, but ultimately unsuccessful, move for the festival to take its antics to the university campus fringe at Otago Museum reserve last year.
But, then, innovation and boldness are what the Fringe is all about.
And it's what Dunedin is all about.
The attendances at events this year have reflected the improved format.
I have never seen so many sold-out Fringe events as over the past 11 days.
Footnote had to turn away more than 50 people from its final night performance of 2009 Made in New Zealand at Allen Hall on Saturday.
The Fringe Festival still needs some tinkering.
It is still a couple of days too long, in my view.
It should feel like a caravan of gypsies has hit town and left us giggling and shivering in its wake.
But organisers have every right to be delighted with this year's event.
"We're really, really pleased with how it's gone this year," festival director Paul Smith told me yesterday.
"Ticket sales have gone really well and it's created a real buzz around town."
It is to be hoped our Dunedin City tribal elders, when reviewing the draft Dunedin festivals and events strategy, can do more to help cement the future of the Fringe.
Dunedin would be much more monochrome without it.
Submissions on the strategy are being received until Friday.
The 2009 Fringe Festival concluded with the Glam Awards Night at XII Below last night.
Here are some of my picks from the past 11 days:
Best play: Katrina Thomson's 3rd Horse was as surprising as it was stunning. David Lynch does 1984.
Best musical: Portraits - The Woman Outside. Lisa Tui Bainbridge has the voice of a dark angel.
Best dance: Former-Dunedin choreographer Sarah Foster's amazing Quick/Unpick in Footnote's 2009 Made in New Zealand. The stand-out piece among five top-shelf dance works.
Best circus act: Cabaret meets Chaos at Sammy's. Unicycles, juggling and whistling policemen. What more could you want?
Died on stage: Wellington comedian Benjamin Crellin had a personal apocalypse on the opening night of his Apocalypse Now show at XII Below. Crellin was so unnerved by a couple's "bad vibe" that he ordered them out of the club. The cracked comedian then repeatedly apologised and offered the crowd its money back for the remainder of his show. Bizarre.
Phoenix-from-the-ashes award: I saw Crellin again two nights later and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Good on ya, mate. That's entertainment.
The "That-was-surprisingly-interesting" award: Petra Kucha in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery was fascinating.
Surprise appearance: Future prime minister David Parker popping up with a very Chamberlain-esque performance in 3rd Horse. The Labour MP had to rush to the King Edward Court car park from Parliament to make the opening night on Thursday.
Close encounter of the third kind award: Dr Glam presents Freaks Cabaret at Refuel. An extraterrestrial night of glamour, glitz and glitter.
Best Chindogu: Gregor Campbell's battery-powered battery charger. Brilliant! That's just perfect Chindogu, that is.
Funniest performance: Jim Hopkins crucifying Te Radar in the debate about "political correctness" on the University of Otago union lawn.
Honourable mention: Deputy mayor Syd Brown trying to ring the festival bell to launch the event when organisers had failed to remove the wadding around the bell's clapper.
The Queen Victoria "We are not amused" award: Dunedin police were less than impressed at some of the Fringe performers' promotional attempts.
Cheesiest show: Das Roq Opera.
Best houses: And Das Roq Opera packed out the Globe Theatre every night.
Endeavour award: Busker Slim Pickens (Mark O'Neil) was out on the streets every day of the festival.
Thought provoking: Dunedin baker Jai Hall sat in the Dunedin Botanic Garden typing out Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland in Mock Turtle Soup during the festival. The project was influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, who trained as a writer by transcribing the works of great authors such as Ernest Hemingway.
Best quote: "I love Dunedin. Your community is so close-knit and everybody talks to each other. I love it how you meet someone here and right away you realise you've got friends in common. That's just so cool." - United States poet Nikki Patin.
Honourable mention: "What's progress all about?" - Otago Polytechnic School of Art lecturer Sudhir Duppati.
Best performer hair colour (male): The bright yellow barnet of Rowan Ford Dawson from Cabaret Meets Chaos.
Best performer hair colour (female): Red siren Sophie Ewert in Portraits - The Woman Outside.
Nostalgia award: Bipeds Productions' Lily would have made the old girl proud.
Biggest fright: The cannon being fired in the Octagon to launch the festival. It scared me into next week and set car alarms off in the area.
Interesting Fringe fact: Last Postcard from Cuba performer Ian Loughran played bass in Liverpool '80s band Echo and the Bunnymen, before he emigrated to Dunedin. The play I really regret missing: Christchurch Free Theatre's Ella and Susn.
Best masks: Poptilly. Spooky and very Fringe.
Best day: The Busking Blitz on the opening Saturday. A magic day in the Octagon, with people of all ages lining up to have a go on Arrowtown bike enthusiast John Potts' wacky "Bikes 4 Fun" inventions in the Octagon carriageway. I even saw a pregnant woman on a unicycle, which would be one of nature's odder sights.
Aroha nui award: Te Ngaru Hou - The Next Wave at Huirapa Marae in Karitane yesterday.
The "That's-something-you-don't-see-every-day" award: German-born artist Sylvia Schwenk's giant X in the Octagon literally stopped traffic.
