The Fringe World Congress is a meeting of producers, managers, directors, and leaders of the Fringe Movement—international arts festivals. The Azores have the only festival of its kind in Portugal and the only one that takes place on islands. The Azores Fringe Festival and its founder, Terry Costa, took part in the World Fringe Congress, which took place this week in the cities of Stockholm, Sweden, and Turku, Finland, and hosted a hundred festivals in conversation.

“Between conferences, lectures, workshops, artist showcases, and networking events, these days feed festival producers and encourage them to keep building,” admits Terry Costa. The congress aims to strengthen the fringe arts festival sector through learning, sharing, and collaboration. Costa was part of the panel that presented the best examples of how to produce a giant, medium-sized festival and a boutique, smaller one, such as the Azores Fringe Festival.

“We are one of the smallest and most remote festivals, but one of the most coveted,” continues the artistic director of MiratecArts. This cultural association produces the Azores Fringe annually, with a presence on the nine Azores islands. “We are unique, we provide incredible experiences that can only happen on our islands. That’s why we’re appealing to international artists. But our main focus is to allow artists from the region, so I continue to encourage their presence and participation.”

Around 300 international Fringe arts festivals take place around the world every year. The Azores Fringe Festival, with its program in May and June, accepts proposals until January. “Our festival, with a budget of around 15,000 euros in cash and more than 50,000 in kind and services provided voluntarily, stood side by side with the festival in Hollywood with a budget of one million US dollars and one of the largest festivals of its kind, Adelaide, Australia, with a budget of 33 million,” shares Terry Costa. “The most incredible thing to realize is that we have the same challenges, dilemmas and we deal with everything in a similar way. It doesn’t matter what size you are, but what you do with what you have.”

MiratecArts is now starting to plan for the thirteenth edition of the Azores Fringe, which will bring surprises to the Azores, new programs, and, at the same time, close parts of the festival, which is in constant development. Terry Costa promises that #Fringe13 Sempre #Fringe13Forever will be a year of cleansing and renewal. To participate, visit azoresfringe.com, where you can learn more about the international movement, the festival, and its programs.

From MiratecArts press release (translated to English by the MCLL Department at Fresno State).