Fringe Festival stages 168 shows in 11 days

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is getting underway in Minneapolis.

Over the next 11 days, more than 1,300 performers will take to stages across the city. They'll be presenting dance, comedy, musicals — and some shows that defy labels.

Wednesday night, out-of-town performers in this year's Fringe gave audiences a sneak peek. The Fourth Wall is back with a show called "Fruit Flies Like a Banana," performing live music while dancing, twirling and zooming around stage on office chairs.

There are 168 different shows in the festival. Longtime fan Evelyn Blum is planning to take the Fringe by storm this year, but even so, she'll only get to a third of the shows at most.

"You can see 56 shows," she said. "I've never reached 56 — 52 is my max that I've ever seen." Among her choices this year are several political shows — Donald Trump is a recurring character — and one with a "Gilligan's Island" theme.

"Definitely seeing that one," she said.

This year, the festival organizers have made some significant changes to the ticketing system. In the past, patrons needed to buy a button; then they could choose to buy individual tickets, a punch pass or an ultra pass, good for every show.

This year, said Executive Director Jeff Larson, that's all been replaced with wristbands, on sale at any venue.

"So think music festival, think State Fair," he said. "You're going to buy a one-day pass and you can see as many shows as you want that day."

Wristbands cost $16 on weekdays and $22 on weekend days. Depending on how many shows one attends, that can reduce the price of a ticket to between $3 and $4 per show. Larson said the goal is to encourage patrons to discover something new, without worrying about wasting their money. Wristbands for kids 12 and under are $5; there are at least a dozen shows geared toward children.

Some artists say they're excited about the wristbands, but they're also worried how it will affect their revenue. Larson says they shouldn't be concerned.

"We've designed this so that all the financial risk lands on the Fringe," he said. "So if this experiment doesn't work perfectly the first year, that will be on the festival, not on the artists. The artists will make at least as much money as they did last year."

In 2015, the Fringe sold more than 50,000 tickets and grossed more than $400,000.

Victoria Pyan has done just about everything at the Fringe. She's performed on stage, produced a show and worked at the box office. This year she's sticking to the audience. She's excited by the number of new, young performers on stage this year.

"It takes a lot of guts to get up on stage, and even more guts to get up on stage and possibly fall flat on your face," she said. "And that's special and exciting to see, and I love watching that stuff."

Pyan said that with the new wristbands and the cheaper pricing, this is a great year for someone to try the Fringe for the first time.

The Minnesota Fringe Festival runs through August 14 at 18 different venues in Minneapolis.

Correction (Aug. 5, 2016): An earlier version of this story misstated the names of the show "Fruit Flies Like a Banana" and the group performing it. The current version is correct.