'Since 1982, Melbourne's longest-running and most popular arts festival has supported and presented some 50,000 artists to more than 2,000,000 people at hundreds of venues across Melbourne and Victoria. Today, audiences in excess of 500,000 enjoyed the work of some 4,500 artists at over 100 venues.
The beginnings were much smaller - but equally as passionate and ambitious. In the early 1980s, Carlton's Pram Factory was sold, and its prolific artist collectives dispersed (with Multicultural Arts Victoria emerging soon afterwards, but only Circus Oz remaining in similar form today). A new entity was formed in 1982 to ensure there would still be a gathering point for these artists: a collaborative which would encourage, represent and unite artists of all disciplines. The Fringe Arts Network was born, aiming to raise public and government awareness of the outstanding contribution made by the alternative arts to the quality of life in Melbourne. The Network mobilised the independent arts into an effective lobby and resource group, capable of overcoming individual financial constraints through offering support in the form of venue advice, shared resources, advocacy and support.
Fringe Arts Network's inaugural event was a mini-festival, followed in 1983 by a week-long event coinciding with Moomba and presenting 120 artists working in the fullest range of artforms at some 25 locations across Melbourne. 1984 saw the introduction of the Brunswick Street Parade as a high-profile means of promoting and highlighting the role of the Fringe Network and their Fringe Festival. This parade rapidly became a significant cultural event in its own right, drawing audiences of over 100,000 to celebrate arts, artists and art-making. The Fringe Festival became known for its mix of high art and irreverence, artistic quality and experimentation. The success of this event and the undeniable strength and talent of the independent arts community inspired state government investment. In 1984, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds expanded to include Melbourne as its third city for the first of three Melbourne Spoleto Festival years, and Melbourne's Fringe Arts Network became the Melbourne Piccolo Spoleto Fringe Festival. The Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (now the Melbourne International Arts Festival) emerged from the Spoleto Festival as a result, and in 1986, the Fringe Arts Network reclaimed its independence from Spoleto and reoriented itself as Melbourne Fringe.
In 2001, the Brunswick Street Parade was held for the final time. Not only had the costs of the event become prohibitive (for example, due to rising public liability insurance), but more significantly, it had ceased to be the most effective way of showcasing the independent arts in a professional context of quality production values and a comfortable audience experience. In 2002, the Melbourne Fringe Fringe Hub model was born, offering a new Festival focus for artists and audiences alike. The Hub model is about programming a number of venues with multi-arts capabilities - venues that are within easy walking distance of one another - and offering artists and audiences a central place to gather and network: the Fringe Club. With its home in North Melbourne, the Melbourne Fringe Hub revitalised this often overlooked inner-city precinct, and would soon encompass not only the North Melbourne Town Hall but also the Lithuanian Club, the Czech Club, the Comic's Lounge, Arthur's Circus, Australia Post North Melbourne and the Town Hall Hotel. In 2006, the Melbourne Fringe Club moved upstairs into the North Melbourne Town Hall's Main Hall, tripling its audiences to sell-out Hub performances, with audiences for the free, nightly Fringe Club program regularly queuing down Queensberry St for entry. In the same year, through local government investment, the City of Melbourne's Arts House program was born: a year-round, curated program at the Meat Market and North Melbourne Town Hall, offering artists invaluable development and presentation opportunities outside of a festival calendar.' Source: www.melbournefringe.com.au/ (Sighted 04/10/2011).
