Every circus needs a tent. The centerpiece of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival is the Spiegeltent, a type of gorgeously mirrored entertainment venue handmade by only a handful of families in Belgium. Set up at East Main and Gibbs streets (aka One Fringe Place), it houses some of the fest’s most popular events, including the annual favorites “Cirque du Fringe” and “Shotspeare.”
But sourcing a Spiegeltent has historically proven to be complicated.
“It’s not like you can go to Spiegeltents ‘R’ Us and just order one off the rack,” said Erica Fee, Fringe’s CEO and festival producer. “It’s very rare to be able to get your hands on a Spiegeltent.”
That’s partly why, ahead of the fest’s annual return from September 9-20, its staff recently launched the Fringe Comprehensive Campaign to raise $1.575 million in funding. With that kind of money, Fee said, the fest can sustain its diverse international and domestic programming of more than 250 shows — and secure its own Spiegeltent.
“We went through all the stages of, ‘Perhaps we will build one ourselves,’ Fee said, “and we had plans to build one, but that was proving to be extremely challenging.”
Renting can be tough, too. Transporting all that glass across ocean or mountains is tricky, and Fee has weathered plenty of logistical challenges since Fringe’s debut in 2012. One year, the rented Spiegeltent arrived at the Port of New York and New Jersey, more than 330 miles from downtown Rochester, and delays necessitated some unorthodox advice from maritime lawyers.
“They said, ‘The only way that we can assure you that you can get it out of the Port of New York is to turn up with a cash bribe,’” Fee said. “We thought, well, we’re a nonprofit organization. I’m not sure how that’s going to look on our audit.”
Instead, having a tent of the fest’s own allows Fee and the staff to rent it to organizations outside of the Rochester area for special events. No bribes necessary.
Such a whimsical heist plotline feels borrowed directly from a Fringe show. Indeed, perhaps one of the 1,600 performers booked for the 2025 fest could write it and star in it at one of the nearly 40 hosting venues around town.
In the Fringe tradition, it could live alongside the more dazzling spectacles, like several taking place next to the big tent in the Spiegelgarden. One of them, “Submergence,” is an immersive light installation; another, “TRACES,” utilizes 25 Rochesterians who are not actors, all wrangled by the noted ice puppeteer Elise Vigneron. One of this year’s most daring feats is “SPHERE,” an aerial acrobatics showcase taking place at Parcel 5.
“SPHERE” arrives courtesy of Italian theater company eVenti Verticali and features the large titular object as a sort of floating stage suspended in the sky. Fee said the presentation requires a flat surface in order to lift up the sphere, which made Parcel 5 a great location, along with its terrific sight lines.
It’s a good way of expanding the footprint of the festival further into downtown. At a press conference announcing this year’s Fringe lineup in July, Mayor Malik Evans acknowledged both the financial and entertainment benefits of the fest.
“The arts is economic development,” Evans said. “And if you cannot find one thing you like at Rochester Fringe Fest, you are absolutely miserable.”
One thing Fringe patrons seem to love? The aforementioned “Cirque du Fringe,” put together once again by Las Vegas entertainers Matt and Heidi Morgan. They unveiled their first show in 2015; this year’s is titled “Claws Out” and follows a beloved opera singer named Madam Kitty Ross.
The Morgans developed the show, along with this year’s “Shotspeare” (based on the Bard’s “Titus Andronicus”), between running their own actual Shakespeare festival in Nevada and working at the Atomic Saloon Show at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas — and being parents of two young children.
Of course, the program they initially conceived may not be what audiences end up seeing at Fringe. The Morgans rewrite it in the three days between landing in Rochester and premiering the show.
“You just sort of slash and burn your way through the script a little bit to get a show built in the first day that, then, over the next two days, you can fine tune to the best of your ability,” Matt said.
Sometimes they retool the entire show after a dress rehearsal — or even opening night.
They know the Rochester audience trusts them. In a strange way, the pair said it almost feels like coming home to a family dinner.
“When we’re working on the Strip, it’s kind of like, you adjust to us,” Heidi said. “But for us, we are guests of Rochester. We expect more of the Rochester audience because they’re probably more intelligent than your average Las Vegas audience.”
The “Claws Out” cast bears this out. Comedian and Buffalo native Peter Vogt will host, with appearances by an aerial performer and a sword swallower, as well as a globally competitive baton-twirling prodigy and the Kenya Golden Lion Acrobats, whose set Matt called “wild and dangerous and reckless.”
That might describe the entirety of Fringe, though Fee opts for a more community-centric tagline: “It takes a city to raise a Fringe.”
It’s also taken her to a new role at the state level. In June, Fee was named to the New York State Council on the Arts. She’ll help decide which cultural organizations will receive state grants, along with the 20 other members appointed by the governor.
Fee said that her position running Fringe has made it clear that it is a difficult time for the arts, especially given the threats to funding at the federal level.
“Everyone is really hurting,” she said. “Luckily, there are some philanthropists who are stepping up to try to fill the void. Another thing that you’re seeing is a lot of groups trying to collaborate with each other in ways that they haven’t before.”
Fee herself is collaborating on another project: a production company called Your Attention Please that she recently reopened after some years of dormancy. One of the shows on the roster is David Kwong’s “The Enigmatist,” which played at last year’s Fringe. Fee also mentioned a historical film project and several TV productions as well.
More work on top of Fringe may seem utterly mental. Fee understands this and even pointed to HBO’s “Ren Faire,” a docuseries that’s essentially “Succession” but at a Renaissance festival in Texas, as a possible look into her own time ahead.
“It was like watching the Ghost of Christmas Future, because the man who produces the ren faire is like 95 years old, and he’s finally retiring,” Fee said. “And I just thought, ‘Oh my god, is that me?’” rochesterfringe.com
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
