While many of our wonderful festivals and celebrations have had to be put on hold due to the unusual times we are living in, some have managed to find inventive ways of making a return – Dublin Fringe Festival being one of them.

Launching today, the Pilot Light Edition will see Fringe thrive through digital and audio means, but still finding a space to present safely distanced live performances.

With a smorgasbord of shows, including stand up comedy, new theatre, film and art, here are just a handful of some of the shows coming your way:

TOKEN CIS

This show sees some of Ireland’s funniest trans 
folks take the mic for two nights of stand-up in a socially distanced live performance. Occasionally dark, usually silly, often irreverent and always joyously defiant, these comics will have you falling out of your seats as they take a sledgehammer to the comedy establishment.

MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS

A celebration of ‘difficult’ women. These women have been blazing trails for 50 years, moving mountains long before hashtags. They are the brass necks, the sharp, the fearless: the mad, bad and dangerous. Featuring Lelia Doolan, Bernadette McAliskey and Dervla Murphy.

DESTINY: A Constellation of Queer Afrofuturist Visions

A series of events for Queer Black celestial kinfolk. A four-part decolonial re-imagining that honours a rich ancestry of Black and Queer Afrofuturist visionaries, Origins Eile (OE) invites you to join us as they explore Queerness, Blackness and the cosmos. 

SHE’S SO LUCKY

This year’s outdoor escapades include Mark T Cox who shares his one-man pop song sing-a-long musical on the troubles and struggles of fame, featuring songs from Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and Britney Spears.

1000 MINIATURE MEADOWS

To be enjoyed in nature, near home, wherever you are. Part writing project, part sound project and part nationwide planting project, audiences receive instructions by mail and an accompanying soundscape to download and listen to while planting.

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The Fringe also curated a series of manifestos with the theme Utopia Or Bust: Manifestos for a New Era. The manifestos will appear in the Fringe brochure and will also be displayed on the streets of Dublin and Paris. The creators include:

GENDER.RIP – a collaboration between Dámhín McKeown, Alber Saborío, Ríon Murphy and a loosely associated collection of gender killers based in Dublin. They are a trans- led multi-disciplinary, anti- capitalist and non-hierarchical art collective.

WEAREGRIOT – a collective of Nigerian-Irish poets and storytellers; Felispeaks, Dagogo Hart and Samuel Yakura. Their goal is to reflect the times we live in through our work, to celebrate culture and community and to stretch the boundaries of poetry. We create to serve both art and agenda.

GLITTER HOLE – a queer performance space, a DIY drag collective, and a bit of laugh dedicated to providing a space in Dublin for experimental, weird and political queer performance of all kinds.

Speaking of the lineup, Dublin Fringe Festival Director, Ruth McGowan, elaborated, “I couldn’t be prouder to share the work of these valiant and visionary artists who saw the possibility in the parameters. This is an opportunity for experimental performance and voices that defy the mainstream to lead the way. Dublin Fringe Festival are responding to the world around us with a new festival format this year, but our programme remains devoted to artistic risk, active spectatorship and shared moments in time.

“We’re making space for joy and discovery and we’re not giving up on togetherness — each of this year’s unique projects need an audience in order to come to life. Wherever you are, safely IRL or URL, Fringe will find a way to reach you.”

For more information on the Dublin Fringe Festival lineup, visit their website here.