The curtain is once again closing on the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Saturday evening, the actors in the festival took their final bow.
The 31st annual festival was named "Village of the Fringed." It showcased over 1,800 performers from around the globe in 215 shows plus, busking acts, children's activities, vendors, and artisans.
Thousands of people packed Old Strathcona over the past ten days of the festival and organizers say they are absolutely thrilled with this year's turnout.
"As of (Sunday) afternoon we have surpassed our ticket record. In fact, we had surpassed our ticket record (Saturday) afternoon," says Executive Director Jill Roszell.
"This is certainly the largest festival we've had, the most tickets we've sold," she says adding, "We've tied, if not broken our record for outdoor attendance from last year."
Roszell credits some of this year's growth to the BYOV aspect, which allows the artists to bring their own programming into the festival.
It was Roszell's first year as executive director of the festival. She says she is 'over the moon' with how well the festival has gone.
"There's always challenges and there's always new things that we can do but, overall this has been a very smooth festival."
There are already plans in the works for the 32nd annual Fringe Festival. Roszell says the potential for growth for next year's festival is very promising.
"I think that this size of Fringe is here to stay and we are hoping that we can keep this momentum going."
The Festival came to close Sunday evening with the closing ceremony and artist awards.
The weather cooperated, for the most part, for the entire festival. It seems fringers could find no better way than to spend their time down in Old Strathcona, enjoying the sights and sounds that were "The Village of the Fringed."
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