APPLICATIONS FOR 2026 A NOW CLOSED
How does Durham Fringe work?
Durham Fringe Festival takes place in the beautiful and historic City of Durham (a World Heritage site), in the North East of England. 2026 will be our 6th year of bringing the festival to life!
We are a curated festival, but our approach is designed to be open and inclusive. We eagerly welcomed applications from anywhere and anybody - we love comedy, theatre, dance, musicals, children’s shows, spoken word, circus, magic, music, mime, and any other performing arts genre you can dream up!
We, the festival, take a central coordinating role. We both select and run the venues and set ticket prices. Performers take home 70% of the net ticket sales, after we’ve accounted for fees we pay on Box Office.
There’s no commitment to perform with us when you apply, and we don’t charge you any fees at any point in the process; not to apply, or to be in our programme, or for the use of our venues, including technical support. If shows accept an offer from us then we will ask all performers/companies to sign a contract, and pay a £100 deposit which is refunded in full provided the performances promised are delivered.
KEY DATES
We've made a Google Calendar so you can view our key dates, alternatively see below.
19 DECEMBER: Applications Open
16 FEBRUARY: Applications Close
20 FEBRUARY: Voting closes
29 FEBRUARY - 1 MARCH: Scheduling weekend
MARCH 2-31: Offers Made (This process can take several weeks)
1 APRIL: Schedule finalised
8 APRIL: Deadline to provide all information required in Eventotron
1 MAY: Programme goes live
29 JULY: Festival commences
2 AUGUST: Festival ends
We endeavour to pay out to performers within 4 weeks of the festival ending. However, sometimes payments are delayed because we are waiting for information from you, particularly in relation to accurate bank details and your use or non-use of music.
Applications are closed, but you can still keep up to date with other opportunities to perform or get involved with Durham Fringe.
Sign up to our performer mailing list. You can unsubscribe at any time. We typically send no more than one email per month.
