Lancashire Fringe Festival

Lancashire Fringe Festival was held across 15 consecututive nights in Preston in the autumn of 2024. It’s the UK’s biggest free theatre festival.

The festival was funded by Arts Council England.

With the help and co-operation of dozens of independent venues and creative in Preston, this festival was an outstanding demonstration of the best performances and shows currently working in the UK, mixed with an extensive programme of new commissions and the development of Preston and Lancashire-based talent.

#lancsfringe is an exciting performance festival giving Preston a cult reputation for cutting edge fringe-style theatre and performances.

And best of all – because the biggest aim of the festival is to re-engage Preston audiences with live performance after years of poor provision and lack of opportunities – all shows in the festival were free to attend.

The diverse range of shows included dance, spoken word, fire performances, family shows, theatre and contemporary performances. Several shows were five-star rated award winners at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Many shows enjoyed the biggest audiences of their tours at #lancsfringe in Preston.

As part of the festival, several new commissions were developed and performed. There were multiple opportunities for local performers to take part in the festival.

Although packed with unique and exciting shows, at it’s heart, #lancsfringe is an audience engagement project.

There were several call-outs to take part in the festival as a performers (which includes dancers and poets). These can be found on the News section of this site.

Previous #lancsfringe: 2022

The previous festival was held in April and May 2022.

The festival brought a series of theatre, spoken word and street performances to the city – with all but one show free to attend.

LFF mixed some of the best contemporary performance shows in the UK and internationally with newly commissioned work and development work.

The 2022 festival exceeded previous records for LFF, including record audiences numbers for a single show, a series of children’s theatre and poetry shows and a day of outdoor site-specific performances across multiple locations which culminated in an evening show of new work by Two Destination Language performed at UCLan’s Media Factory black box space.

The festival supported several emerging artists and comissioned five new pieces of work.

We want as many people as possible to experience live performance in its many forms – and feel inspired by what they see.

Here is the festival highlights film:

Here are some of the imkages from the 2022 festival. Photography by Garry Cook.

Performer feedback:

“We played in a huge city theatre last night, you’ve got us twice the crowd they did.”

“Easily the best show of the tour”

“Preston has been our biggest audience.”

“Biggest audience of the tour”

“Best show of the tour”

Audience feedback:

For Jeremiah: Absolutely powerhouse tonight. It was amazing. I loved it.

For The Regulars:

We didn’t know this was happening but got more drinks to stay. Three of us enjoyed it. More in Preston please.

I loved it! Funny, dramatic, immersive and inspirational. Had to hold back tears there (at the end) for a brief moment because I love stories.

For poets Joy France and T.M/O, with local poets group Damson Poets:

This was so soulful, amusing and beautiful. It was great to have so many varies voices here in Lancashire.

Really enjoyed it. Absolutely awesome. Great to have local poets as well.

This was so soulful, amusing and beautiful. It was great to have so many variesd voices here in Lancashire.

For mixed bill at Soundskills community venue – Helena Ascough, Dan Jones & Jess Azskenasy:

Haven’t laughed so hard in ages! Very enjoyable indeed good to have a laugh! Some very interesting audience participation.

For mixed bill at St Matts Mission community venue – Anthony Briscoe, Dan Jones & Jess Azskenasy

Delighted it was organised in this neighbourhood, excellent acts, great in between – Jessica. Thanks guys.

For Nomad:

Very good. Brill insight into the health and housing system through lived experience.

Shockingly accurate insight into mental illness, homelessness and the inhumanity of ‘welfare state’ and mental health services. Desperately upsetting.

Amazing, powerful talented! Candid truthful brutal true representation.

For double bill – Cheekykita and Fonda Cox:

Cheekykita – bonkers – really different thoroughly enjoyed it. Great to see someone so unique. Fonda Cox – really funny and fabulous. Great how she worked the room.
Cheekykita – bonkers – really different thoroughly enjoyed it. Great to see someone so unique. Fonda Cox – really funny and fabulous. Great how she worked the room.

For War of the Roses:

Great whistle-stop tour of history. Entertaining and educational.

Interesting and light hearted. I didn’t fall asleep unlike history lectures at university!

For How To Be a Better Human:

Very hard writing – very brace of Chris to open up so honestly about his experience which I really respected. Appropriately funny at times.

Amazing. Really honest and open. Brilliant.

For Lancashire Monologues:

Brilliant. So exciting to see this work innovative production and genuine group theatre. Loved it how you made a series of monologues a cohesive group piece.

Great to see local writers/actors given the opportunity for a place to show their work.It was brilliant, great monologues, amazing actor’s play, real theatre’s experience. Very good writing – super acting – all monologues well linked. Compelling scripts. Compelling performances. Very high standard. I felt I was there.

Brilliant. Well organised. Great venue, fab actors.

Really didn’t know what to expect but beyond amazed and impressed – so much local talent, well put together, funny sad, emotional and thought provoking and great venue. Advertise it more widely in Lancashire. Come to Lancaster!

Very enjoyable. Good to see new work and local people given the opportunity to develop and refine their work. Great audience too.

For Eugene:

It was astonishing and interesting. Funny and interactive.

Loved it – very engaging, enjoyed the audience interaction!

Very engaging. So much fun and different from anything before.

For Suzy Homemaker:

Very innovative, quite thought provoking. Trying to work out the different themes. Domestic violence and coercive control perhaps. Reminded me of Stepford wives. My mum had that biscuit tin! Good luck. It was fab!

The event was amazing, the performer did an excellent job of portraying her emotion throughout and kept up the energy throughout.

I enjoyed the performance! I loved the facial expressions the way they changed so fast. The energy was high from the beginning to the end. This was a very special way to finish a long working day.

For Turtle:

What an excellent show. He is a pro. Best thing I’ve seen on the Fringe and a really entertaining comedian as he’s varied, a good actor, lots of different themes, like the love of music/visuals, a sympathetic and amicable character. Belongs on the paid comedy circuit – come back to Preston!!

For Amina Atiq, with with local poets group Damson Poets:

Great event. Both featured poets were terrific and the diversity of open performers was awesome.

Amina Atiq was brilliant – please bring her back next year!

For Louise Fazackerley:

Brilliant. Loved it. Very entertaining. Loved her delivery.

Excellent performance.

For Martin Kiszko:

Inspiring. Thought provoking. Very interactional. Loved it.

You can see the list of shows and details about each show here.

Lancashire Fringe Festival 2019 had an audience of almost 1,000 people for 14 performances over 10 nights in May 2019.

The outstanding contemporary theatre and spoken word program included Catch 22 Years (Katie O’Brien), Oh Yes Oh No (Louise Orwin), F*ck You Pay Me (Joana Nastari) and Kate Fox (Where There’s Muck, There’s Bras) alongside newly-commissioned performances (21 new pieces of work). Nightly performances enjoyed audiences of up to 100 people.

List of poeple we have worked with (not exclusively for Lancashire Fringe Festival):

Louise Orwin (Oh Yes Oh No)

Hollie McNish

Damien Warren-Smith (Garry Starr Performers Everything)

Timberlina

Mike Garry

Matt Abbot

Louise Fazackerley

Maria Ferguson

Kate Fox

Natalie Wardle (Control Pants Symphony)

Dan de la Motte

Katie O’Brien (Catch 22 Years/Clean at 17)

JB Barrington

Kevin P Gilday

Clementine Bogg-Hargroves (Skank)

Harry Baker

Henry Normal

Joanne Tremarco (Women Who W*nk, The Birth of Death)

Blackpool, What a Sh*t Place To Die

Avital Raz (My Jerusalem)

The Indecent Musings of Miss Doncaster 2007

Tom Mayhew

Luke Wright

Ruth E Cockburn

Jess Green

Jenny May Morgan

Tony Walsh

Laura Taylor

Ship of Fools

The Community Centre

Joana Nastari (F*ck You Pay Me)

Nannas With Banners

Lancashire People’s Theatre

Here are some of the audience comments for LFF 2019:

Absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed it. I hope this festival will become a tradition in Preston and grow bigger and bigger. Fantastic.

Excellent. More please. Let’s make Preston the centre of culture.

Enjoyed immensely. Preston has been crying out for this for a long time. Special mention to Amy Lee Tempest and Richy Integer – great.

Fantastic mix of spoken word performances. Great to see emerging talent.

Absolutely fantastic. Funny, moving and thought-provoking (and I’m not being patronising) Superb night out.

Wonderful. Lovely to hear a litany of language fast, sad, sorry. I’ll be back for more.

It was a great introduction to the art of spoken word. very good variety of work and a high standard of performance. Can’t wait until the next one.

Excellent – great to see fringe theatre of such high calibre in Preston. Lovely stories – warm, funny and thought-provoking.

Brilliant content v well acted. Funny stories, poignant moments, sometimes strange heart-warming. Great energy, the actors seemed immersed in the stories, like they were really their own.

Original, moving, entertaining, inspirational – can’t wait for the next one! Brilliant acting, high quality performance – a great night with a convivial atmosphere and leaving me with plenty to think about.

I loved the range of monologues, the commitment from the actors. I liked the traverse staging. It meant everyone could see and it meant we could really feel transformed into a different place at each monologue. Lovely night out! Thank you. I felt the sounds were a little distracting – especially as we were near speaker. Really liked the monologues! Maybe that could be your next theme.

Excellent, very expressive. Full of emotions and understanding of various views of society these days.

Two terrific performances nice to see strong work in development, both are already appealing – look forward to what comes next. Katie is a brilliant improviser and Karen’s insights are relatable, plus gags are great and glad she kept them in!

Enjoyed the show. Initially felt nervous but liked the performance and how Katie switched from her 15-year-old self into ideas about recovery.

Don’t know how to describe it, not just a play, monologue [just a] one-woman show. And it worked! Well paced, kept my attention. Resonated. Will stay with me – which is the sign of a good story/play.

An absolutely phenomenal event, amazing job and a fantastic atmosphere! Well one Bob!

Good. Nice to see something different in a lovely location. Hope to see more events like this in Preston.

Whoa!!

Brilliant performance. Challenging perceptions, asking questions.

Excellent. It made me cry.

Honest, raw, outstanding.

Facebook invited. I came, loved both shows. Absolutely awesome.

Amazing, the female stand up was inspiring and so real!. Need to see more female acts being appreciated. Rock N Roll was emotional and hilarious. Truly Moving.

Mind bending.

Absolutely awesome. Nannas so so current. Bras So much info and heart felt.

Great evening (unexpected protest withstanding). Great performances giving insights into women’s battles for having a say and being remembered.

Good quality, Ben put lots of effort into his performance.

Loved Ben’s performance and great to see platform given to new poets too.

Absolutely brilliant.