Green Bay Fringe Fest brings eclectic performances to NEW

GREEN BAY, WI – (WGBW & WISS) – The Green Bay Fringe Fest brings a mix of performances to Northeast Wisconsin. From July 18 to July 21, 27 acts or artists will put on almost 80 shows in seven locations in Green Bay in four days. This is the first year for the Fringe Festival in Green Bay.

Matt Worzala of the Green Bay Fringe Festival said he and several community members including council members from Green Bay and De Pere have been talking about a Fringe Festival in Northeast Wisconsin for about a year. 

“We came up with the idea that if you put together the event, and you say ‘Hey! We’re going to be having this thing.’ And you give them dates. They will come,” Worzala said. “It’s really exciting. For some of these performers, it’s their very first fringe. It may even be one of their very first performances.”

Worzala said performers of all experience levels and from all over will appear at the festival. The collection of acts and performances is an eclectic mix.

“We have a lot of one-person shows at the Fringe. We have a mentalist. We have the Dinder Brother’s Family Circus…We’ve got two independent shows that are about cats, somehow. We have some dance performers. We’ve got a band,” said Worzala. “We’ve got this wide variety of different shows that are really pretty cool.”

What is Green Bay Fringe Fest?

Worzala said that the GreenBay Fringe Festival board wants to encourage, not only the performance art, but also tourism in Green Bay.

“We really hope people will come and experience these acts that they’ll never get the chance to see otherwise. But also these people come into Green Bay and go ‘Wow! Green Bay is really great. And it’s got all of these great things going on. I would love to come again next year. Or I’d love to come back here another time.’ Or tell people they should be coming here!” said Worzala.

The Art Garage, The Depot, Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, The Green Bay Community Theater, Brown County Democrats office, The Bridal Church, and the Brown County Central Library are the venues hosting the performances. 

“Kinda of going back to that old idea of these non-traditional spaces. We didn’t need to find theatre theatres to put on the performances. We just needed to find people that were willing to open up their space to us to have these acts come in,” said Worzala. 

There are about 30 Fringe Festivals like Green Bay’s throughout the country, including Milwaukee; Elgin, Illinois; and a giant one in Minneapolis. 

Worzala said each performance is rated as Kids, G, PG, PG-13, or 18+. Each show will be between 30 minutes and an hour. Tickets are $10 per performance and 80% of the cost goes to the performers. Tickets are available at GBFringe.com. Seats are limited but tickets are also available at the door.