Reading Fringe

Scenesaver is delighted to partner with Reading Fringe Digital 2020.

Reading Fringe Festival is a 10-day annual festival, welcoming national and international artists from a wide range of genres to indoor and outdoor venues across the town. We programme a wide variety of shows including shadow puppetry, yoga, clog workshops, conversations with refugees, an orchestra in a train station and a whale in a shopping centre.

When Covid hit, and lockdown loomed, in collaboration with our artists we took the decision to go digital. Thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, we converted from a physical festival with over a dozen venues and in excess of 100 events, to a 6 week online, streaming festival with nearly 70 pre-recorded and live events.

Reading Fringe Digital kicked off with a 10-day programme of live events to create that festival buzz, inviting audiences and artists to visit together and connect each day. Recordings of these live events remain available to view on our website until 31 August, alongside our vast programme of pre-recorded content.

Thanks to the continued support of the Landeshaupstadt Düsseldorf, we were once again able to deliver a curated programme in celebration of Reading’s twin city partnership with Düsseldorf.

As part of our drive towards greater accessibility, 60% of our content was live or closed-captioned. We also have three audio described photography exhibitions.

By providing our platform digitally, we supported our artists to reach an international audience as well as our core local audience, reaching across six continents, whilst providing our usual varied programme of events for all audiences to enjoy – without having to leave their home! Going digital has opened up new opportunities, connections, and creative outcomes for us and for our artists, meaning we are excited about a hybrid Festival approach going forward.

If you’d like to learn more or be part of our open access stream in 2021, sign up to our mailing list at our website: readingfringefestival.co.uk