![\"Avid](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/20260804db014.ej_304601757-1.jpg\" "\\"Avid")
For Anastasia Maywood, the Edmonton International Fringe Festival is theatre Christmas, and it shares a number of characteristics with that winter ritual.
There is the gathering of fellow celebrants and the chance to eat favourite foods (in this case, green onion cakes) combined with the pleasure of receiving a gift you weren’t expecting. That’s why Maywood and her husband Peter Woytkow attend as many shows as they can — usually between 30 and 40 — during the 11-day festival.
“There is something about live performance,” says Maywood, 42, an academic advisor at MacEwan University and a dancer who has performed at Fringe. “You can see the sweat dripping off people. Someone can miss a line, or an audience member can laugh and then the actor responds to it.
“It’s that engagement. It’s happening live, and anything could happen.”
Referred to as frequent fringers by festival organizers, Maywood and Woytkow are among a group of enthusiasts known for taking in dozens of shows at the annual festival, which kicks off Thursday in Old Strathcona. Armed with programs smeared in yellow highlighter and detailed spreadsheets, frequent fringers have trained for the Fringe Dash (the frantic hustle that sees them bridge distant venues in record time). They are found at different ages and stages of life. They may have wildly divergent theatre tastes, with some patrons opting for musicals or two-handers, while others cleave to clowns.
But frequent fringers interviewed by The Journal were united in one respect: they were committed to risk-taking and to opening their hearts and minds to the weird and wonderful variety of shows available — 209 productions in 37 venues for this, the 45th Edmonton International Fringe Festival running Aug. 13 to 23.
“You’ve got to have the Fringe mentality, and that for me is that there are no guarantees and you can’t (complain) if you get a bummer because that’s the luck of the draw,” says John Pressey, 84, a retired United church minister who has been fringing hard since 1987. “If you’re not prepared for that, you shouldn’t go to the Fringe.”
Last year, Pressey saw 42 shows and expects to hit roughly that amount again in 2026 (his personal best is 46). A solo attendee, Pressey gets up early to hit the gym and to pack a healthy and delicious bagged lunch before arriving on the festival site, where he will take in shows at noon, two, four and six p.m. He buys a pass (Frequent Fringer passes are available for $170 for 10 tickets, and Double Fringer passes give you 20 tickets for $240) and then (hot tip) applies the most expensive shows to the pass, paying separately for the cheaper shows to maximize value.
Pressey prefers drama to comedy, and is happiest attending shows in the French Quarter. He makes an effort to catch work by his favourite local directors (including Northern Light Theatre’s Trevor Schmidt) and actors (Linda Grass, Kristin Johnston, Sue Huff and Michelle Todd).
“Theatre is my passion. It’s magical and I’ll never stop loving it, no matter what,” he says.
![\"](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/20260804db016.ej_304601771-1.jpg\" "\\"")
Passion comes up a lot when talking with frequent fringers, some of whom travel great distances to attend the largest and longest-running Fringe Festival in North America. Members of the Fitzgerald family come from Saskatchewan and Ontario to stay with Edmonton Fringe fan Kevin Fitzgerald, who opens his home each year to friends, family and even artists who need a place to stay during Fringe.
“It’s my yearly pilgrimage to Mecca,” says Larry Fitzgerald, 73, an amateur actor in Saskatoon who saw 32 shows last year and expects to see about that same number in 2026.
Fitzgerald has been coming to the Fringe since 1985 (the festival began in 1982). He says improvements in ticket technology mean that he spends less time in lineups, making it easier than ever to “power fringe.” He enjoys the wide variety of shows, but also relishes time spent with Fringe fans in his family group. As many as 14 family members have attended together over the years, holding an annual awards ceremony at the end of the festival to nominate their top picks in categories including best musical, Fringe-iest play, and best use of clowns.
“We get in some good arguments about what worked and what didn’t. Talking about it is almost as much fun as doing the shows,” says Fitzgerald.
It’s hard to know how many folks fringe frequently. On average, each buyer purchased tickets for 5.77 shows in 2025. As an Edmonton Journal reviewer for more than 25 years, I have met a few folks who claimed to see 50 to 60 shows per festival. One thing is certain. If you want to cover a lot of ground, you’ve got to be organized.
Frequent fringers Eden and Jeanette Machtemes of St. Albert, fringers for more than 40 years, have a system. Jeanette gets a program as soon as it’s available and spends 20 to 24 hours sorting out tickets and booking restaurant reservations for their annual excursion. The couple sees live theatre all year around, but since they retired in 2019, they catch about two dozen shows each Fringe. In fact, they consider the Fringe a staycation and book into a Whyte Avenue hotel to make it easier to cover all elements of the festival, including local restaurants, the beer tent and live music performances in ATB Park.
“It’s our way of catching up with the shows and just the whole vibe. I love it,” says Jeanette.
Over the decades, the couple has witnessed Fringe theatre history. They have seen a Fringe production that later debuted off-Broadway (The popular local Indigenous musical parody Bear Grease enjoyed a more than two-month run in New York’s St. Luke’s Theatre in 2025). They saw Kim’s Convenience (which began its life as a Fringe play) before it was a Canadian Screen Award-winning TV show and Netflix sensation.
“It’s been quite an education,” says Eden.
This year, as winners of the 2025 Golden Ticket draw, the pair will see even more shows than usual. Golden Ticket winners receive a host of perks, including three nights hotel accommodation, dinner at The Next Act: The Official Pub of Fringe and 100 show tickets (the Machtemes plan to share tickets with friends and family).
While the duo fills their days with musicals, dramas and comedy, they always make room for a surprise. “We get most tickets in advance, but usually leave a couple of spots open for something that’s unplanned, that we hear about through word of mouth,” says Jeanette.
Indeed, serendipity is a key feature of the Fringe. Frequent fringers are thrilled to share details about a show that surprised them, gave them goosebumps, taught them a lesson, made them cry with laughter or smile in recognition. (For me, it was a show called Not Enough, which I saw in 2016 and still think about today.) It feels like a gift you weren’t expecting — the best gift of all.
Indeed, Peter Woytkow and Anastasia Maywood plan their whole Fringe schedule around the unplanned. They “front load” the first five days of the festival with tickets purchased in advance, but leave openings during back half to explore the “sleeper hits and those shows that everyone is talking about,” says Anastasia.
She adds that while a few shows every year may disappoint, the vast majority that the couple sees are really good, and four or five are outstanding. Those are pretty good odds, and make fear of the unknown a little less intimidating.
“Within a lot of life, we play it safe,” says Peter, 48, who works in tech at Stantec. “The TV shows are safe, the algorithms on our socials and with YouTube, it’s giving you what you want.
“With the Fringe, it’s like ‘I have no idea what this is and I don’t know if I’ll be happy, but why not?’ And if it doesn’t work out, an artist got paid and they might be able to continue on their journey and achieve even greater heights.”