BUCHAREST
FESTIVAL & FRINGE
FROM 2021

“Fringe” is english for the edging from a carpet. Just as fringe or tassels are at the edge of a carpet, so does fringe events are at the edge of the conventional. In romanian it would have sounded weird “Franjuri & Bucharest Festival”, so we stick to the original term that is used all around the world. Because yes, this type of events are unconventional creative gatherings spread on the entire globe and they take up an entire city for a few good days.
What happens exactly? All the artists, locals, companies, authorities, PR – so basically everyone – gather their forces to support the unconventional art in all its forms: film, theatre, music, dance, visual arts and so on and so forth. Some of them offer exhibition spaces, other logistic resources, some of them the experiences in organizing and promoting events. But first of all, the artists put their soul into the battlefield.

Why a "festival"? Because you know that it could not be one without some great bands’ concerts.

Something like this is born from love for the place that you live in and from a lot of hard work. But it pays off. Because this type of events that holds the entire community is actually a very big meeting place for ideas and out of the box initiatives that sometimes change the city vibe.

Fringe is a state of mind. At the beginning there only was the audacity of eight group of actors that change the game rules at the famous and high-end International Theatre Festival from Edinburgh, going up on stage without being invited. That happened, as you have already guessed, in 1947. Then is when the fringe festival concept was born; an open festival that allows each artist to express himself.
From that moment on, Fringe fever spread rapidly all around the world. Every big city that respects itself has its own Fringe.
The art of fringe put itself outside a system defined by rules, in the experimental area. Here is where both creators in search of their own voice, but also powerful bands that want to meet a different public, put out their show by testing their creativity.
The fringe approach disrupts the idea of art festival and today it is associated with the liberalization of the art, with its descent from the ivory tower toward the grand audience.

At the most fringe international festivals, the artists pay an entrance fee, they manage their own show (technically and logistically), they can sell tickets to their own shows and the organizers offer them advice and they promote them in the program brochure.
BFF will adapt the fringe system to what the artistic communities from Romania need. For the first editions, the organizers have thought about a series of facilities for the artists. Therefore, BFF will not allow any fee to the participants, but it will provide spaces for the events and it will assure the logistic and technical assistance for the shows, within the limits of its resources.
These facilities are provided by the BFF organizer, which aims to support and promote the artists by offering them a platform to expose their works as well as resources that they need to follow their creative path.

For the festival, the rules of the game slightly differ from the fringe. Usually, the artists included in the “Festival” section have a team of curators and / or managers that deal with the management of the events at which they attend. They handle the schedule of the artists that they represent, while the fringe creators manage their schedule on their own. Another difference comes from the fact that the first ones attend the festival following an official invite, while the artists who come to the “Fringe” section are the ones who initiate their own attending at the event and the ones that propose to the organisers their own program for events. It should be emphasised as well that they are very well-ranked international artists who want to present their event within the “fringe wing”, to keep their creativity and spontaneity in check. Regarding the big international fringe festivals, there is no delimitation of notoriety between the artists participating in one section or another.
The online site of the venue displays the same vital information as the list of locations, but some important additions: artists can view photos and look plans of the location, access the website, and request direct information via email, or reservation requests.

Bucharest needs creativity like it needs air and the recent history shows what the city needs now more than ever: an economical ecosystem, as functional as it can be. The pandemic situation endangered not only people's health but also businesses’ health. An event like BFF can help multiple businesses to restart or at least make them last a little longer. Yes, we are aware that we have never imagined that a restaurant or a hostel could be saved by a painting, by some actors or a contemporary dance group. And still, here we are. The festival from Edinburgh, the mother of Fringe, brings each year around 75 million pounds to the Scottish economy.

We could further live with Bucharest the way it is. Or we could live in a city that feels like an artist, more surprisingly and more vividly than ever, one that finally matches our sparkling and uber-connected spirit at everything that is new. Basically, we have the opportunity that us and the Bucharest that surrounds us to become finally BFF.

Bucharest Festival & Fringe is an ecosystem of occurrences supported by artists, bands, promoters, producers, PR people, journalists and most important, by the audience.

The event takes on the mission to promote cultural values represented by the artists that attend the festival and to create the necessary environment of experiences and ideas.

BFF comes along with a request to grow the unconventional art. It addresses to not only the young and educated audience, but also to the general audience with the purpose of educating it.

Also, by its nature, BFF enables the opportunity of a direct communication between the artists and the specialists interested of the cultural phenomenon.

And above all that, BFF has the purpose to get Bucharest closer to people each year.