2012 Sydney Fringe Awards Announced

Sydney Fringe Festival 2012 has announced its annual awards for excellence, honoring the best – and weirdest – of Sydney Fringe offerings.

Held at the Sly Fox in Enmore, the ceremony was hosted by Chris Lego of Treehouse Industries and 2011 ‘Spirit of the Fringe’ winner.Crowd Favourite award (voted by online public votes) went to The Atheist’s Guide to the Galaxy, a bizarre musical presented by Backstage at Sidetrack Theatre, written and directed by Jake Nielsen & Matt Predny and starring a large cast with live musicians.Best Musical Theatre act was Alexander Vanderboom’s Acts Of Derring-Do.

Best Circus & Burlesque act was Luminous;  the award for Best Dance went to Platform Shorts.Best Music Act was won by Cowboys in the Amazon. Best Comedy was a

warded to the popular Mel Buttle’s set Stop it You Are!Lei Hideaway, presented by Clockwork Theatre at Venue 505, won Best Theatre Show.

Awards for Excellence in Visual arts went to Deborah Keogh, Jacinta Stephenson, Sally Mowbray and Trent van der Jagt. Susannah Williams was awarded best individual artist and the best exhibition was Nigel Sense’s “I Work with Tools” at the Sheffer Gallery.

The Free Fringe Awards for events that were free of charge went to Beta Vulgaris (Best of Late night Fringe), Grounded (Special Award for a slamming party), Spoken Turd (Award for excellence in weirdness) and photographer Dave Urquhart (Award for going above and beyond the call of duty).

Stewart Rimes (multiple events at the Sly Fox) was named “Spirit of the Fringe.“

Fringe General Manager Lew Palaitis said the festival this year had proven that the demand for The Sydney Fringe is as strong as ever.

“In 2012 we broke our box office record, nearly doubling sales at the box office from last year.

“Awards nights like this are the perfect way of saying congratulations not just to the award recipients but the nearly two thousand artists involved in The Sydney Fringe.”