Cabaret Fringe Cancelled For 2020

Adelaide's annual Cabaret Fringe Festival has been cancelled for 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Cabaret Fringe Inc Board Chairman, Greg Mackie OAM said, "Our volunteer, not-for-profit board takes this decision with heavy hearts. Artists need paying audiences to flourish. But artists and audiences alike need to stay healthy - we all have a part to play in helping to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic."

"There's an old saying - never waste a crisis. We will be regrouping and considering all options," Mackie concluded.

Cabaret Fringe honorary Executive Producer, Lauren Thiel continued, "We are putting the longer-term interests of artists and audiences first, and will be listening to, and thinking creatively alongside them during this tough time."

"Audiences are expecting at least the next six to eight months of social distancing, so a festival cannot work in 2020. We will regroup - and come back re-energised and better than ever in 2021! When conditions have improved enough to bring the audiences safely back to venues, we will do our bit to reconnect them with artists." Thiel concluded.

Inspired by 'father of the Fringe and Cabaret Festivals', the legendary Frank Ford AM, the Cabaret Fringe received a bequest over five years of $100,000 total from Frank's estate to help the organisation promote cabaret as an art-form, and to help South Australian cabaret artists find audiences.

The Cabaret Fringe was established in 2008, started by brothers Paul and Adam Boylon, and Jay Robinson. It survived the closure in 2019 of Boylon's iconic Adelaide city cabaret venue, La Bohème. A group of experienced cultural sector leaders were brought together by Greg Mackie to rally around Boylon.

Now in its 12th year, the Cabaret Fringe features the best of home-grown and national talent and features the breadth of artistic expression in cabaret in Australia.

From Berlin to Broadway, Downtown to the Outback - cabaret artists have found a home and dedicated audiences in the clubs, bars and venues of Adelaide through the Cabaret Fringe.

With a commitment to nurture cabaret in South Australia for the long haul, the volunteer board provides independent creators and producers with an affordable platform upon which to develop their art-form.