Sydney Fringe Festival, New South Wales’ largest independent arts festival and running from 1-30 September, has announced the first highlights of its 2025 program.
The 2025 edition of Sydney Fringe will be the final festival for CEO and Festival Director Kerri Glasscock. After 12 years in the role Glasscock is moving on to a new position as Executive Director of Create NSW (as previously reported by ArtsHub).
“I’m delighted that I can announce a first glimpse into the dynamic 2025 program, which includes exciting new collaborations with performing arts organisations in Canberra and Wollongong, and powerful, original work by leading theatre-makers from Australia and around the world. The 2025 program is a celebration of the bold, diverse voices that make our arts community so vibrant,” Glasscock said in a statement.
“Overseeing my final Sydney Fringe program as Festival Director has been a deeply rewarding experience and I’m incredibly proud of how far this festival has come. Over the past 12 years, we’ve grown from a small community event into a NSW Foundation Event and the largest independent arts festival in the state, unlocking underused spaces that have strengthened the cultural fabric of the city and forging lasting partnerships that have brought groundbreaking work to Sydney stages,” she added.
Sydney Fringe highlights so far
The ‘Made in Sydney’ program – a Sydney Fringe staple showcasing the best of Sydney’s independent theatre-makers – presents contemporary works across two weeks at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists.
Two ‘Made in Sydney’ works have been announced so far (with many still to be revealed). Multi-award-winning theatre-maker, writer and actor Charlotte Otton brings her acclaimed one-woman show I Watched Someone Die on TikTok (described as “a wake-up call [which] brings home the dangers of the internet and social media with visceral force” in Tiffany Barton’s five-star review for ArtsHub during the production’s Fringe World season in January) to PACT, and Māori artist Daley Rangi presents their show Takatāpui, a deeply personal exploration of their lived experience of gender, sexuality and culture.
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Canberra Theatre Centre’s ‘New Works’ program comes to Sydney Fringe for the ‘Made in Canberra’ program at PACT – a week-long program that includes the Sydney premiere of actor and playwright Christopher Samuel Carroll’s solo performance, The Cadaver Palaver: A Bennett Cooper Sullivan Adventure – while the inaugural ‘Made in Wollongong’ program (presented in collaboration with Merrigong Theatre Company’s MERRIGONGX program) features independent works from Illawarra creatives, including The Cardinal Rules, an innovative eulogy inspired by the Catholic upbringing of actor, theatre-maker and clown, Rose Maher.
International works feature in the Fringe’s ‘Touring Hub’ program at Newtown’s New Theatre, where highlights include prolific Singaporean playwright and performer Jo Tan’s one-woman show King (an examination of stereotypes, gender construction and discrimination based upon the premise of a public relations executive who decides to attend an office party in the guise of a man), Danish performance company Himherandit Productions’ high-intensity dance work Mass Effect (exploring physical endurance and group dynamics) and UK company Sh!t Theatre’s Or What’s Left Of Us, exploring folk music and grief.
The full program for the 2025 Sydney Fringe will be announced in early July, with the Festival’s 2025 edition running from 1-30 September.
Visit the Sydney Fringe Festival website for details.
