Perth Fringe: Awards close the most fabulous Fringe

After four weeks of record-breaking attendance across both ticketed and free events, Perth’s Fringe World Festival for 2014 came to a stunning conclusion this week with the Festival’s awards ceremony.

Over the month long festival, which opened on January 24, over 370,000 people attended a Fringe World free or ticketed event. The delightful smorgasbord of over 60 venues hosting over 450 shows translated into box office success, culminating in just over 150,000 tickets sold and over $3.2 million spent through the box office, with final door sales still coming through.

The majority of attendance was at Fringe World venues in Northbridge and the Perth CBD. James St came alive as thousands of patrons of all ages and from all over Perth made the nightly pilgrimage between the Festival’s two main outdoor playgrounds, at the Perth Cultural Centre and The Pleasure Garden, which opened for the first time this year.

Perth City was humming with activity each night of the Festival and this vibrancy saw a huge number of shows sell out completely, especially across the weekends. Each of Fringe World’s 60-plus venues were well attended each evening, with a special nod to Midlandia, a new outer suburban festival venue for 2014 and Noodle Palace, which breathed new life into the stunning art deco former Piccadilly cinema complex.

The Festival Awards ceremony saw 25 prizes given by corporate, media partners and sponsors in kind. These were extremely generous and included cash prizes for the awarded acts.

James Mc Hale of ABCTV news  proved an excellent host and kept the proceedings moving with wit and charm.

The major award of the evening was the Martin Sims Award for the Most Outstanding New Artist awarded to Point and Shoot.This recipient received $10,000.00 and assistance to perform at another festival in the World Fringe Alliance. The W.F.A. has 9 members being New York City, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Brighton, Prague, Grahamstown (S.A), Hollywood, Adelaide as well as our own beloved Perth

As you can imagine the excitement in the room was palpable!

To a man, the sponsors took to the stage and expressed their delight in the quality of the Fringe, their pride in being part of the venture, and willingness to continue the relationship.

Plaudits flowed for Director Amber Hasler, and former Director, now CEO, Marcus Canning. It was also wonderful to hear award recipients praise the unflagging assistance they had received from the entire Fringe team, from technical support through to volunteers.

As an added bonus the wonderful Urban Orchard, the loveliest place to be on a Perth summer evening, will remain open for a further two weeks, closing on Sunday 9 March. Happy nights!

For a full list of award winners go to the Fringe World website