KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival returns to ‘normal,’ with a COVID caveat 

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Many of the familiar elements will be in place for this year’s KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival. There is the big show on Parcel Five. The vaudevillians at the intersection of Gibbs and East Main streets. The musicians and the actors and the drag queens. Approximately 425 in-person and virtual performances over 12 days and nights.

This is a festival that has been re-inventing itself from week to week, leading up to the 10th annual event, to be held Sept. 14 through 25.

“I didn't think that a week ago we would be bringing in an Italian circus tent, for instance,” says Rochester Fringe Producer Erica Fee.

But a giant caveat, a COVID caveat, hangs over this return to normal. Or abnormal, as the Fringe can often be. Wednesday afternoon’s announcement of the lineup came with the now-familiar adjustments to any public event.

Although COVID guidelines are subject to change, as of now all performers, staff, and attendees 12 years of age and older will be required to show proof of vaccination. Masks will also be required indoors, including for children under 12. The unvaccinated, including children under 12, must wear a mask at outdoor events as well.

And there are unseen precautions set by relative newcomers to the festival scene, what Fee calls “aerosol engineers.”

“It’s about filters and ventilation, she says. “It’s not just vaccines, you know?”

The Rochester Fringe drew an estimated 100,000 people during 2019, the last year it was held pre-pandemic. Yet the pandemic may have unexpectedly opened some doors for large-scale events. During last year’s festival, offered entirely online, Fee predicted that virtual performances would remain a part of that event. Indeed, this year 55 productions will be available on-demand as well as live-streamed.

“In terms of definitely pivoting to an on-line festival last year,” she said, “we have been able to increase access to the arts for people who might not otherwise be able to physically attend a festival, whether for one reason or another.

“And also we have been able to bring in artists virtually, including those from overseas, and so that has really created a lot of energy and engagement around that virtual platform, which I think that the virtual section of our platform will always continue.”

Wednesday’s Fringe Festival “Big Reveal” announcement included festival regulars PUSH Physical Theater forming a lighted human lectern on the stage beneath the JCC Canalside Stage tent as Fee began speaking.

As Monroe County Executive Adam Bello noted, this year, “we get to do it in person.” This year’s Fringe, he added, falls on the 200th anniversary of Monroe County.

City Councilman Mitch Gruber said that the Fringe Festival introduced Rochester residents to newer venues, such as La Marketa/International Plaza and The Spirit Room. “Fringe gets people there,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer added his voice to Wednesday’s reveal. “The KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival not only showcases the immense spectrum of Rochester’s home-grown talent, it has also cemented Rochester as one of the premier gathering spots for inspiring, fun, and exciting performers from across the world,” he said via press release.

“That’s why I was proud to secure a Shuttered Venue Operator Grant for the festival to support it through the pandemic and keep it running in Rochester for years to come.”

As it has in past years, Parcel 5 will not play host to giant French inflatables depicting the history of life in the universe. But from 4 to 10 p.m. on the festival’s final day, Parcel 5 will be home to “Smokestacks 2021,” a concert headlined and curated by the Rochester indie rockers Joywave. It is one of more than 120 free shows at Rochester Fringe.

The Cristal Spiegeltent, an anchor of Rochester Fringe for years and located in the parking lot across from Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, was not able to make the trip from its home in Belgium because of issues with work visas. In its place will be an Italian circus tent, with open sides that will allow for better ventilation in these pandemic times.

The tent welcomes the return of Matt Morgan, whose Cirque du Fringe shows have been a Spiegeltent highlight in recent years. The new show, a post-wedding tour de farce called “Cirque du Fringe: The Afterparty,” features two performers that Morgan met, not surprisingly, when they were all involved in serious clowning around at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Veterans of an off-Broadway show, “Comedy Trio Happy Hour,” the trio of Morgan, Mark Gindick and Ambrose Martos will be joined by female vaudeville acts that include Ethiopian hula hoop and foot juggling, a Russian juggler, an African-American acrobat, and music by New York City’s DJ ABall.

The area outside the tent, One Fringe Place, features some free events, including the return of the Silent Disco and the showing of Pedestrian Drive-In films, with the audience listening in on Silent Disco headphones. The 10th annual Gospel Sunday on Sept. 19, with local musicians, has been moved from Kilbourn Hall to the outdoors of One Fringe Place.
One Fringe Place will also once again offer “Dashboard Dramas,” a short play acted out in cars with an audience of two in the back seat. Bushwhacked, the comedy duo of Kerry Young and Abby DeVuyst, return with two interactive shows, “Bushwhacked Backyard: BONFIRE” and “Bushwhacked Renaissance: Renew, Revive, Re-diculous.”

Fringe Street Beat, an all-styles dance competition for teams on Sept. 18, is moving to Dr, Martin Luther, Jr., Park at Manhattan Square.

Venues returning for another Rochester Fringe include Central Library, Eastman School of Music, Garth Fagan Dance, Java’s, Joseph Avenue Arts & Culture Alliance, MuCCC, Nox, RIT City Art Space, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester Music Hall of Fame, and The Little.

With some indoor venues not yet ready to open due to the pandemic, Rochester Fringe has spread out into the community more than in past years. New venues include the JCC’s Dawn Lipson Canalside Stage and the indoor JCC Hart Theatre; Made on State, a “makers” co-op and The Spirit Room, both on State Street; outdoor La Marketa/International Plaza on North Clinton near Clifford Avenue; the new Sloan Performing Arts Center at the University of Rochester; and the newly renovated, 700-seat Theatre at Innovation Square, formerly Xerox Auditorium.

Site-specific shows have created new venues as well. Aerial Arts Rochester will present a show, “Amplified,” in its new facility on Atlantic Avenue. The multidisciplinary show “Remnants” will be in Ellison Park.

Ticketed shows are on sale now at rochesterfringe.com.

Jeff Spevak is WXXI's arts and life editor and reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].