Mumbai Fringe Festival, the India edition of one of the world's largest performing arts festivals, is set to take place for the first time in March, the organisers announced on Thursday.
The festival will make its India debut on March 10 in Mumbai and will run till March 15. It will open at the Tata Theatre, NCPA before unfolding across Bandra’s creative circuit including Khar Comedy Club, 3 Art House and indifferent @ Gharonda.
The Indian edition of the festival will feature artists such as Rohan Joshi, Kanan Gill, Varun Grover, Aakash Gupta, Priya Malik, Amandeep Khayal, Urooj Ashfaq, and Amit Tandon.
Acclaimed global works including Nigel Miles Thomas’s award-winning solo performance Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, a striking solo adaptation of Macbeth presented by UK-based theatre company The Shakespeare Edit, and David Hoskin’s Haunted House, a genre-blending mix of mime, comedy and storytelling, will be presented.
Over six days and nearly 60 performances, the festival will transform the neighbourhood into a dynamic cultural map where audiences move between venues, discover new voices and experience comedy, theatre, poetry, storytelling and experimental work in its most immediate form.
What began in 1947 as a rebellious act on the margins of the Edinburgh International Festival has grown into the world’s largest open-access arts movement, spanning more than 300 festivals, including Edinburgh, Prague and Adelaide.
The festival, simply known as Fringe, has launched careers, challenged conventions and redefined what live performance can look like.
Speaking about bringing the global movement to India, Steve Gove, founder and director of Prague Fringe, shared their excitement around this long-awaited debut. “Bringing Fringe to Mumbai has been a long-held dream. Cities around the world have embraced this model and watched it reshape their creative landscapes. Mumbai has the energy, the appetite and the talent to make this extraordinary. We are proud to open this chapter here,” he said.
Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, added, “Born in Scotland nearly 80 years ago, the Fringe has always stood for joy, openness and giving everyone a platform with minimal gatekeeping. Over the years, we have proudly welcomed many outstanding Indian artists to the Edinburgh Fringe, and that tradition continues.”
Tickets are live on BookMyShow, with multiple shows already sold out. The Mumbai Fringe Festival is co-founded by Steve Gove and Simar Singh.