In the overall structure of cultural environment, urban culture plays an important role.   Aside from mainstream arts performance in pop culture, there are also other alternative, non-mainstream, experiential art performances that are an integral of shaping the unique qualities of urban culture.  The goal of the Taipei Fringe Festival is to provide a platform for liberating art from the theatre space.  Instead, art can be performed in galleries, parks, coffee shops and other spaces of public life, allowing for the occurrence of all kinds of small-scale performance art pieces or installations.   Through this mechanism, more people can come to understand that art does not just derive from elitism, but can also be the product of everyday lives; anyone can enthusiastically display their creative passions.

The concept of the “fringe festival” originated in 1947 during the Edinburgh International Festival in England, when eight arts groups who were not invited to participate in the festival decided to create their own event to rival the International Festival.  As a result of their willingness to do away with mainstreamism and celebrate the independent spirit, their event, “The Fringe”, quickly earned the respect of artists around the world,  And in the 60-plus years since then, the Fringe Festival has become the most popular arts movement of all time.  The celebration of new sources of creativity, perpetually supporting new talents, and a free and open culture are the most significant aspects of Fringe's widespread development. From 2008 and onward, “Taipei Fringe Festival”, in accordance with its open and welcoming philosophy, has had non-juried admissions process where applications are neither able to be judged nor rejected. Signing up is all that's needed to become an artist in this outstanding new domain. Because performances will be vary greatly in both content and presentation, there are many surprises to be had in admiring the various exhibitions of the Festival. Through their attendance and support of all kinds of new performance concepts, audience members become integral members of the community and unite with the artists to together define the independent spirit that unites the festival.

Taipei Fringe Festival, on the basis of fueling society's collective energy, continues to persue the route of offering non-traditional venues that will inspire and excite performer's creative abilities while expanding art in a way that penetrates all strata of society. This year many new venues are situated within Taipei's network of alleys and lanes. Pass through the market, circumnavigate the small alleys, climb a small hill, walk to the riverside, Taipei Fringe Festival's scope extends to the city limits! Utilizing such a multi-faceted collection of venues works to expand our creative limits, thus increasing the appeal of the festival. While we don't provide any production funding, all participating artists keep 100% of their ticket sales revenue.  In order to increase the convenience of buying tickets for our audiences, artists will all be using the same ticketing system, which also provides more opportunities for cooperation between artists.

This year's the Curator process has been amended to allow for an even larger range of venue possibilities, and to accommodate even more types of, and better planned, performance activities.  On one hand, this will encourage artists to actively participate in and plan activities geared toward invoking greater audience participation. On the other hand, it reflects our efforts to create a more comprehensive service platform for artists which includes marketing lectures, consultant teams, cross-cultural collaborations and opening day activities - all of which not only increase show quality, but also increase ticket sales and production ability.  The last few years have seen many outstanding Fringe performances, many of which have been asked to perform at other festivals or cultural events.  We're extremely happy to see this affirmation of high-quality Fringe performances, and look forward to seeing even more this year.  Fringe isn't just an opportunity to perform, but it is also an important opportunity to be recognized by the world.

2014's 7th Annual Taipei Fringe Festival takes it thematic undertones from 007's wacky behavior and intrepid sense of self-confidence to pique the interest of the city's residents. We welcome performers to submit any kind of performance they can think of, be it dance, music, new media, or cross-discipline, and let us see variety and creative production planning. From Saturday, August 30th to Sunday, September 14th, let your dazzling light shine for the world to see!