3° CATANIA OFF FRINGE FESTIVAL

3RD Catania Off Fringe Festival 2024
How the Fringe was Born

Francesca Vitale and Renato Lombardo had the idea to build a fringe festival in 2015, when they created an a signed agreement with then Festival Off Avignon president Greg Germain to establish a sister festival ("Milano OFF") in Milan that would take on the Avignon model, It would include all the same types of collateral events, such as panels, workshops and professional courses for artists. Over time, relationships and partnerships were woven with other Fringes around the world - Adelaide, Orlando, Hollywood, Azores, New York, Stockholm, Thessaloniki, Götenborg, Edinburgh - and the two festivals became part of the World Fringe Community.
Milano Off and Catania Off Fringe Festivals are both organized by the Cultural Association "La Memoria del Teatro."

What is Catania Off Fringe?
"Fringe" is a type of festival dedicated to performing arts at all levels. While looking for new companies to hire for the Palco Off Catania and Milan yearly seasons at the 2015 Avignon festival, Francesca and Renato noticed that in every corner of the city, and wherever physically possible, something extraordinary was happening— a continuous stream of performances that went on until the early hours of the morning.

The Fringe is an all-encompassing cultural phenomenon, with an enormous scope aiming to act as showcase for  productions across an infinate number of themes. The Milan festival is now in its sixth edition, and a Fringe has sprung up in Catania as well. Catania is a city strongly suited to host the "Fringe" phenomenon: its locations, its welcomeness and its spontaneously theatrical people make it an ideal stage for this festival.


The Festival
Catania will host the Fringe— an international festival of Off theater and performing arts—for a second time.


THE 4 SECTIONS OF THE FESTIVAL:

CATANIA IN – The evening Catania Off Fringe Festival is presented to the city. The event will be held in the prestigious and symbolic space of Catania, with the participation of exceptional "Testimonial" speakers: artists and cultural icons with very strong ties to the city of Catania and Sicily as a whole. This year they include Donatella Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Castiglia and Mario Incudine, all artists who are unquestionably and affectionately  linked to Catania and Sicily.

CATANIA OFF FRINGE – Professional companies from all over Italy and abroad, after being selected by a panel of experts, will fill the city with shows in a vast array of artistic genres and in different languages, performing in the various locations of the Festival.

VILLAGE OFF – The Village is the center and heart of the Festival; a meeting point for artists, industry professionals, and audiences, as well as a place for exhibitions, meetings and focus panels and much more.

CATANIA OFF DELL’OFF - A series of live events distributed throughout participating spaces. A journey through the application of art and entertainment as a means of enhancing the most tangential neighborhoods.

A Festival by the city and for the city

Thanks to a national Fringe circuit, which has been rooted for years in the city in Milan, Catania now also becomes one of the leading cities in this project.

True to the spirit of the Fringe and the desire to involve all people in a great celebration of theater and the performing arts, this "Off" fringe festival will travel across Italy from north to south in an artistic dialogue resulting from years of experience, using the same organizational model as its national and international partners.


A Festival both in the city and of the city, aimed at maximizing involvement in the social and economic fabrics of Catania; a project that attracts foreign tourists for performances in multiple languages, and bringing demographically diverse and varied audiences, inspired an uncertain curiosity. Fifteen days of events radiating from the heart of the city into the suburbs, transforming Catania into a magnificent and colorful celebration with multiple cultural proposals from around the world. Inhabitants will have the opportunity to become visitors of their own city, experiencing it fully in every corner due to the high number of fringe locations unlike anything before. Tourists will experience the ease of discovering areas of Catania outside of their usual paths.

Circulation, Communication, Well-being. These are the indispensable indicators of emotional and intellectual health, which combined contribute to the achievement of the "G.D.H. (F.I.L.)," or Gross Domestic Happiness: the improved quality of life through choices which bring  us closer to knowledge and respect.