New York State’s largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival celebrates its 15^th
season with 715 performances of 297 productions at 45 venues in just 12 days

• CIRCUS IN THE CITY brings the first-ever large-scale collection of outdoor circus performances to Western New York.
• Features internationally renowned circus artists in SUMMER BREAK by FLIP FABRIQUE, THE PIECES by ALOFT, FLOTSAM & JETSAM by BIG TEETH COLLECTIVE, LOST TO ME by CIRCUS EVO and special performances by 3AM CIRCUS.
• Packed with award-winning shows MARCEL LUCONT’S WHINE LIST, JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU and TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD.
• PETE DAVIDSON to headline Fringe as COMEDY HEADLINER.
• World premiere of CIRQUE DU FRINGE: ANCHORS AWAY, with cast of All-Star Reputes
• Appearance by the cult hit: A YOUNG MAN DRESSED AS A GORILLA DRESSED AS AN OLD MAN SITS ROCKING IN A ROCKING CHAIR FOR FIFTY-SIX MINUTES AND LEAVES.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The ESL Rochester Fringe Festival held its annual “Big Reveal” press conference today at the George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre, announcing the full lineup for the 2026 Fringe, which takes place September 15 – 26. Tickets for all events go on sale TODAY at 12 NOON at rochesterfringe.com or on the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival App, which is available for download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Rochester’s not-for-profit Fringe has become one of the largest, most successful, and most prominent fringe festivals in the nation, the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festivals in New York State, and one of the region’s most anticipated festivals each year. The 2026 Fringe will feature 715 performances of 297 productions at 45 venue locations in just 12 days. This comes after a record-breaking year for show applications, resulting in returning favorites, festival debuts and major U.S. premieres of Children’s, Comedy, Dance, Multidisciplinary & Circus, Music, Spoken Word, Theatre, and Visual Arts & Film. This large-scale programming for everyone to enjoy is only made possible by funding from community sponsors.

“As we celebrate our second year as title sponsor of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival, we’re pleased to stand alongside a festival that has become an honored tradition in Rochester’s arts landscape,” said ESL Federal Credit Union President & CEO, Tom Rogers. “We’re proud to honor Fringe’s 15^th Anniversary this year and support their annual multi-day event that brings people together through creativity, connection, and shared experiences while also strengthening our local community and showcasing the very best of our city.”

During today’s press conference, Founding Festival Producer and CEO Erica Fee said, “We are a festival that continues to present in unexpected ways. We push boundaries and we make the impossible, possible!”

CIRCUS IN THE CITY
Each year, Rochester Fringe invites audiences to bring a sense of adventure, curiosity and wonder, and offers a dizzying array of ways to experience performances. The Fringe is often described by attendees as a 12-day “circus,” and it makes sense! The circus is widely known as the greatest show on earth, captivating audiences with spectacular performances and filling the air with excitement and anticipation. Rochester Fringe does that, too! This year, it’s upping the ante by bringing CIRCUS IN THE CITY to Fringe. 

CIRCUS IN THE CITY is a “festival within a festival” that will last the full 12 days of Fringe and is made possible through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism. CIRCUS IN THE CITY will include free outdoor events, circus arts, street theater, interactive experience and fun themed food and beverages. This will also be the first-ever large-scale collection of outdoor circus performances in Western New York.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY ON THE FRINGE: Circus arts performances at the festival will reach a peak during Friday & Saturday on the Fringe, which takes place during the first full weekend of the festival on Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19. International artists will join US-based performers to put on spectacular shows across public spaces in the city of Rochester from Gibbs Street to Parcel 5. All shows will be completely FREE to the public with special performances by:

• SUMMER BREAK by FLIP FABRIQUE: A circus company based in Québec City, Canada. This troupe is renowned around the world for its beloved production and an uncanny ability to have fun and move the audience. It is composed of world-class artists and the troupe crafts contemporary circus shows, including SUMMER BREAK, which will be free at Rochester Fringe. In addition to its large-scale shows presented every summer in Québec City since 2015, the troupe is performing around the globe in the most prestigious circus institutions and festivals.
• THE PIECES by ALOFT: At Rochester Fringe this year, THE PIECES by Aloft—an acrobatic circus show where six artists explore eight ordinary ladders to build towers, cranes and bridges. Alone the ladders and the artists are wobbly, unsure and unstable, but in a metaphor for our times, when they come together they are strong, brave and can achieve great things. In a cultural moment defined by division and noise, The Pieces offers something physical and immediate: a reminder that resilience is built collectively, and that strength is not domination, but support.
• FLOTSAM & JETSAM by BIG TEETH COLLECTIVE: Big Teeth Collective presents the physical theater piece, FLOTSAM & JETSAM at Fringe, which includes a duo trapeze act with partner acrobatics on an outdoor swinging trapeze rig. Founded in Vermont in 2017, Big Teeth makes funny shows about sad things by way of their favorite medium, the body.
• LOST TO ME by CIRCUS EVO: There is a unique power in reclaiming public space. Circus EVO’s outdoor activations are designed to transform the familiar into the extraordinary—turning city parks, town squares, and industrial landscapes into breathtaking arenas of wonder. They will offer LOST TO ME by CIRCUS EVO with a Chinese pole performance and live musicians, accessible to all and impossible to forget.
• 3AM THEATRE: People can join 3AM Theatre on the streets in the crepuscular hours of the Rochester Fringe as they bring unforgettable, contemporary circus performances of hand balancing, contortion archery, acro juggling, tightwire, and original music. 3AM is based in New York City.

The allure of the public spectacle draws thousands of people to downtown Rochester each Fringe season. The ESL Rochester Fringe is the only Fringe Festival in the world that offers such spectacular, large-scale, free public programming. 

SPIEGELTENT
The Spiegeltent is a rare, jewel box theater presenting one of the most unique settings to experience theater arts and take in some of the wildest shows Fringe has in the lineup. Today, organizers revealed that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival cult hit, A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking in a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves, is coming to Rochester Fringe for one performance only on Thursday, September 17 at 9 p.m. in the Spiegeltent. 

Las Vegas legends and Fringe favorites Matt and Heidi Morgan act as the ring leaders to a world premiere of Cirque du Fringe: Anchors Away. This murder mystery takes place on a cruise ship where there is heart stopping entertainment and a crew willing to whisk you away on the voyage of a lifetime. The cast includes world-renowned circus arts performers, including: Ashley Wolffe (Aerialist), Sai’len Jaegar (Aerialist), Maria Brown (Glass Balancer), Owen Sanchez (Hand Balancer, Chair Stacker), Esmerlada Onofre Sanchez (Slack Wire Hula Hoop Artists) and Seth Ingram (5x World Champion Jump Rope Artist), with credits from Atomic Saloon Show, Circus Circus, Cirque Mechanics, Teatro ZinZanni, Spiegelworld, NBA halftime shows and the World Circus Arts Championships in Las Vegas.

The multi-award-deserving deadpan Frenchman is back in the Spiegeltent with his acclaimed interactive, late-night show Marcel Lucont’s Whine List and his family-friendly show Marcel Lucont: Les Enfants Terribles—a Gameshow for Awful Children. 

THE GARDEN STUDIO
New this year to Rochester Fringe is The Garden Studio, which is a second performing arts space that has been added to Dawn’s Spiegelgarden at One Fringe Place. The Garden Studio is a studio size theater space that offers a more intimate environment for shows with up to 60 audience members.

2026 Fringe highlights in The Garden Studio include: Just to Be Close to You by Cam Poter in a 10x award-winning contemporary clown show featuring dreamy lounge-singer, Carl Poteraychke. The artistry of creator and performer Jessica Creane is on full display with Tea Party at the End of the World, a small-audience, multi-sensory experience inviting participants to remain playful in dire circumstances. Bushwhacked: Big Joy Fun Time Revival is an interactive, high-energy comedy spectacle hosted by the wildly charismatic Tim and Pammy Shea Fakker who will lead audiences through absurd testimonials, musical numbers and miraculous transformations.

Site Specific Shows
The Fringe embraces immersive, unorthodox theatre and its ability to engage audiences in unexpected and often far-reaching ways. Invisible No More is set in Mt. Hope Cemetery; in Forest Music, people wander the trails throughout Washington Grove and experience the magic of live music; the historical Austin Steward Plaza is hosting the environmentally conscious EcoVibes – Oil and Water Don’t Mix and The Sights and Sounds District, which explores the hidden history of Rochester. A total sell-out eleven years running, Dashboard Dramas XII is an intimate theatre experience unlike any other. People will find themselves immersed in four, all-new ten-minute plays as they rotate from one car to the next. Bushwhacked is also back this year with an all-new immersive experience—Tim and Pammy Shea’s Pamper Camper—where people will be blessed by the radiant chaos of this revival of laughter inside one joyful little trailer. Finally, ROC’ing the Streets is a free event that brings local artists and musicians to sidewalks, plazas, parks, and other spaces downtown during the final day of the Fringe.

Family-Favorites
Fringe offers programming for people of all ages, including families and children. Kids Day is a National Day of Play celebration this year on Saturday, September 26 with events in the Spiegelgarden and Parcel 5 in downtown Rochester. There will be chalk art, pumpkin painting and Disco Kids. Street Beat regional breakdancing and all-styles dance competition is at MLK Park on Saturday, September 26, and Gospel Sunday is on Sunday, September 20 in the Spiegeltent. Nearly a quarter of the Fringe’s 715 performances are completely free.

Fringe Magic: LET’S GO!
The reason Fringe is such an expansive and successful festival is due to the hard work and dedication of the 45 venue partners who curate and host shows at their locations every year. The Fringe in Rochester is unique due to our bi-furcated system—or Rochester Model—where both the Fringe organization and local venues curate shows for the festival and are complemented by large-scale, public performances. This results in a highly collaborative and unique mix of performances, where the shows are as unique as the venues themselves. This year, audiences can get married in a school, take mass in a bar, or enjoy a sauna at church. They can push boundaries and experience a show completely in the dark or even in the belly of a whale.

2026 venues include:
Aerial Arts of Rochester, Austin Steward Plaza, Biltmore Bar & Lounge, Blackfriars Theatre, Bop Shop Records, Centerstage Theatre at the JCC, Central Library of Rochester, Century Club at the Strathallan, Downtown United Presbyterian Church, Delmonico and Dugdale, Eastman School of Music, The Focus Theater, Garth Fagan Dance Studio, Genesee Valley Park, George Eastman Museum, Gibbs Street, The Harley School, The Hochstein School, Java’s, Joseph Ave Arts and Culture Alliance at the Lincoln Library, Kodak Hall at the Eastman School of Music, La Marketa at the International Plaza, Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Memorial Art Gallery, Mt. Hope Cemetery, MuCCC, Parcel 5, Photo City Music Hall, The Little, RIT City Art Space, RMSC Strasenburgh Planetarium, RMSC: Garden of Fragrance, ROC Cinema, Roc City Circus, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, The Rose Room, Salena’s, School of the Arts, Dawn’s Spiegelgarden, Spiegeltent, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, University of Rochester – Sloan Performing Arts Center, Vanni’s Jazz Lounge at the Inn on Broadway and Washington Grove.

All of this and so much more will again make the 15^th season of Fringe the event of the year–including the previously announced comedy headliner Pete Davidson, performing on Saturday, September 25 at 8pm, at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. 

The full 2026 ESL Rochester Fringe Festival program can be found at rochesterfringe.com, where tickets are also available for all events. The printed festival guide will be available in mid-August and people can also build their Fringe schedules and purchase tickets with the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival App (Apple App Store or Google Play Store).

The Show Must Go On
To ensure the future and stability of Fringe in Rochester, the organization announced today that it is 84 percent of the way to meeting its first-ever Fringe Comprehensive Campaign goal of $1.575 million. The campaign committee reports that it is in its final stage of fundraising. This endeavor will enable the capital acquisition of a rare Spiegeltent, which is one of the world’s most unique performing arts venues and will be available for rental opportunities. To purchase naming opportunities for Spiegeltent booths, stained glass or floorboards, visit rochesterfringe.com. Funds raised during this effort will also be used to support international and domestic artists in bringing their shows to Fringe, as well as provide arts education and built-in reserves so that we can continue to deliver outstanding programming for years to come. 

Circus in the City is supported through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.

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ABOUT THE ESL ROCHESTER FRINGE FESTIVAL:
The 12-day ESL Rochester Fringe Festival is one of the nation’s largest fringe festivals and has been recognized by the New York Times as “one of the country’s more prominent multidisciplinary events.” It is also New York State’s largest performing arts festival and the current winner, three years running, of CITY Magazine’s Best of Rochester Award for Best Arts Event. This year, the Fringe celebrates its 15^th season. Nearly a million people have attended more than 7,000 performances and events at the Fringe since its inception in 2012. The non-profit organization’s mission is to offer platforms for artists, new audiences for venues, and unparalleled public access to incredible art. It strives to be diverse and inclusive, as well as to stimulate downtown Rochester culturally and economically. The Fringe showcases the work of regional, national, and international artists from emerging to superstar. Audiences at Fringe also have the rare opportunity to attend a performance at the Spiegeltent, which is one of the most unique performing arts venues in the world.

ABOUT ESL:
With more than 100 years of locally owned history, ESL Federal Credit Union serves as a full-service financial institution to more than 465,000 members and 18,700 businesses. Founded in 1920, the company provides personal banking, business banking, mortgage services and wealth management services through its locally based 33-branch network; telephone, mobile and online banking; and live chat center. The Rochester-based financial institution employs more than 1,000 people in the Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes region and holds more than $10.6 billion in assets. Since 1996, ESL has paid out 30 consecutive years of Owners’ Dividends to its members totaling more than $350 million. Since the creation of its Community Impact initiative in 2018, ESL has reinvested more than $173 million in grants throughout the community. The company has appeared on Great Place to Work® lists since 2010. ESL Federal Credit Union is headquartered at 225 Chestnut Street, in Rochester, and can be found online at www.esl.org.

ESL ROCHESTER FRINGE SPONSORS:
ESL; Rochester Area Community Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; 7Crest Financial Partners; Dr. Dawn F. Lipson; Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; City of Rochester; Monroe County; University of Rochester; RIT; Mary Mulligan Trust; Elaine P. and Richard U. Wilson Foundation; Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Foundation; Konar Enterprises; Golisano Foundation; The Rubens Family Foundation; Lake Beverage; The Inn on Broadway; Hyatt Regency Rochester; Nazareth University; St. John Fisher University; Monroe Community College; The Pike Company; Hamilton A/V; Wilkins RV; McCarthy Tents & Events; Broccolo Tree & Lawn Care; Liccardi Radio Services; Finger Lakes Distilling; Aspire Transformation Services; Visit Rochester; The Spindler Family Foundation; The Harley School; Wegmans; City Blue Imaging; Canandaigua National Bank; Yelp!; AdHouse Productions; Walk Up Advertising; Mary Cariola Center; Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC; and House of Guitars.

ABOUT FRINGE FESTIVALS:
In 1947, eight theatre groups showed up – uninvited – to perform at the newly established Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland. Although not listed in the official program, the groups performed anyway, at venues they found for themselves. The following year, a Scottish journalist coined the term “festival fringe” to describe these non-curated shows that began turning up annually. The Edinburgh Fringe is now the world’s largest arts festival and the third largest event after the Olympics and the World Cup.  Today, there are more than 250 Fringe Festivals worldwide, with nearly 50 in the United States. The ESL Rochester Fringe Festival was the first in Upstate New York.

Image & Online Press Kit 
More information and high-res images can be found at 2026 Rochester Fringe Festival Media Kit

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SOURCE Rochester Fringe Festival, Inc.