What is The Summer Weekender?

 

Brand new to 2026, it's a 4-day fringe celebration talking place in July. The Colchester Fringe Summer Weekender will see local performers and international groups from across the world take over the city centre with a thrilling mix of theatre, music, comedy and more.

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What are we looking for

 

We are an open-access Fringe that believes it's good to be different. With that in mind, we are looking for bold/ out-of-the-box performances. 

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• We are specifically looking for ORIGINAL or REIMAGINED work

• Between 40-60mins

• In-person events that take place from Thursday 23rd July to Sunday 26th July 2026 

• Your show should only require basic lighting & sound. Only GOLD Venues provide a Technical Operator. We can source a Technical Operator in SILVER or Bronze venues for you on an hourly rate. But we advise you to bring your own.

• We encourage applications by artists from under-represented groups. We understand the economic and structural barriers that prevent such artists from performing and we look to counter these within our fringe model (as seen below).

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What you get

• 60/40 split (Artists will receive 60% of their own ticket revenue)

• We will place you in one of our fringe-managed venues 

• 2-4 performances

• Listed in our official fringe programme (distributed throughout the city and the surrounding area) 

• Marketing support

• The chance to win some of our awards

• A Fun FRINGEY Weekend!

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​Selection Process

• Juried (Our artists/ companies will be selected based on the application they provide).

• We are aiming for our programme to consist of 50% (Local), 25% (National) and 25% (International) companies.

• Selected Artists will have a deadline to accept their place and to pay their relevant fees. If they miss this deadline then their place will be allocated to another applicant. 

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Tickets

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Tickets will be priced between £8 or £12 for audiences and £5 for fringe artists. We may introduce some multi-buy/ discounted deals, but this will be made clear to selected artists when contracts are sent out.

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Venues

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All of our venues are Fringe-Managed. This means that unlike other Fringes as an artist, you do not have to find your own space. Instead, you tell us what type of venue you see your work in, the number of performances that you would like to do and your technical needs. And we will find the right venue based on the information you give us.

 

Selected Artists will be required to pay a fee depending on the level of venue/ number of performances they request within their application form (detailed below) and a £150 refundable deposit (returned to you after the completion of your performances post-festival).

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We cannot guarantee that selected artists will be allocated their first-choice level of venue. So, within your application we will ask you for your 1st & 2nd choices. 

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Each venue tier and their prices below are informed by the number of seats each venue has. The higher the tier, the more seats the venue has. Examples of the types of spaces you could expect from each venue tier are as follows: 

 

Bronze: Café

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Silver: Studio

 

Gold: Theatre 

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*If your show involves movement/dance we do not recommend a Bronze or Silver Venue. Please apply for a Gold

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