ABOUT TOTNES FRINGE FESTIVAL

Totnes Fringe is a new theatre festival built to fill a gap

For all its reputation as a creative town, Totnes has lacked a visible, ambitious platform for live performance — something that brings work into the town, takes over its spaces, and gives audiences a reason to show up. That’s what we’re building.

This isn’t a single-venue festival. It’s theatre across the town — in civic buildings, pubs, gardens, laundrettes, and anywhere else a performance can hold an audience. Work appears where you don’t expect it, and sometimes where you do — but either way, it asks you to engage.

We programme a mix of local, regional and visiting artists, with a focus on new work, risk-taking, and ideas that feel current. The aim isn’t to replicate what already exists elsewhere, but to create something that feels alive and specific to this place.

And we pay artists.

Not as an afterthought, and not “if there’s anything left”, but as a core principle. If we want serious work, we need to take artists seriously. That’s part of making the festival credible — to audiences, to funders, and to the artists themselves.

The Fringe is ambitious — in scale, in intent, and in what it expects from both artists and audiences. It’s not perfect, and it’s still growing, but it’s moving in a clear direction: becoming a festival that is visible in the town, valued by the community, and worth being part of.

In 2025, the festival sold over 2,100 tickets, reached close to 3,000 people including free events, and returned over 80% of ticket income directly to artists.

It’s delivered by a core team and supported by more than 70 volunteers — a collective effort that reflects both the energy and the reality of making something like this happen.