About Tallinn Fringe Festival

🟢 How It All Started#

Before it became a month-long festival across the entire city under the Tallinn Fringe umbrella, it started as a grassroots artistic takeover.

• December 2016: A collective of circus, theatre, dance, music, and fire performers joined forces in Telliskivi Creative City for 5 action-packed days of solo shows and co-created group performances. The festival was called ”Boom Chika Wau Wau”.
• The Spark: The festival was held as a counterpoint to the theatre festival ”Winter Nights”, sparking the movement that would become the Tallinn Fringe.
• The Vision: Spearheaded by performance artist Dan Renwick (Dan le Man), the initiative grew out of his own career-defining experience at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 2000s. Recognizing a gap in Estonia for emerging and non-traditional artists, Dan set out to build an inclusive ecosystem where performers learn by doing, test new material, and build sustainable careers outside the mainstream repertory system.
• Today: Celebrating 10 editions, Tallinn Fringe features multiple venues hosting a rich mix of international and local shows across Tallinn.

🟢 How Curation Works#

People often assume “open-access” means no curation at all. At Tallinn Fringe, curation happens directly at the venue level:

1. Direct Connection: Artists contact venues directly to pitch their shows.
2. Venue-Level Curation: Each venue selects and curates its own lineup to match its unique space, vibe, and audience.
3. The Fringe Umbrella: Venues provide their confirmed shows to the festival team to compile into the main program.

This decentralized approach ensures a diverse, vibrant, and colorful program for everyone. It also helps champion female and underrepresented voices, achieving a near 50/50 gender balance among performers in recent years.

🟢 Our Values & Commitments#

• To provide a platform for performers to find and expand their audience, and access international networks.
• To encourage discussion and opinion across diverse artistic forms.
• Empowering Independence: Acting as a launchpad for emerging and independent artists where ticket revenues go directly to the performers.
• Removing Gatekeeping: Demonstrating that art doesn't require academic certificates or official approval to find a stage and an audience.

🟢 Global Fringe Network#

Tallinn Fringe is an active member of the Baltic Nordic Fringe Network (BNFN), World Fringe Network, Baltic Nordic Circus Network, and Circostrada (as well as connections with Fringe Italia OFF and ISACS).

These global networks provide connections to over 500 fringe festivals worldwide that collectively organize over 220,000 shows for a global audience of more than 28 million.