Unmissable Arts & Fringe Festivals in 2022

Here’s our guide to finding new talent arts and fringe festivals around the UK.

Birmingham 2022 Festival presents Healing Gardens of Bab

27 June –  7 July 2022

“The Healing Gardens of Bab are a paradise that uplift alternative expressions of gender, sexuality and family. The gardens are a space to reflect on the violent erasure enforced by British Empire and to celebrate the many sexual identities that are not translatable into English. Together we will create our own future folklore.” Expect unique installations, art and events all over beautiful Birmingham.

Brighton Festival & Brighton Fringe

May | Brighton

Brighton Festival has a history of using Brighton’s unique venues and secret spaces to show off the world’s culture

Brighton Fringe is England’s biggest fringe festival and a great chance to discover new talent.

Calm Down Dear

24 May-11 June | Camden People’s Theatre

Figs in Wigs curate a feminist festival which promises Sophie Ellis-Bextor, DIY sperm banks, pole dancing comedians and personal experiences of vaginisimus.

Edinburgh Fringe

August | Edinburgh

Scotland and the world’s festival city comes to life at full scale again in 2022. Expect more shows than ever so be sure take a chance on something you’ve never heard of.

First Light Festival

18-19 June | Lowestoft

A unique celebration on the most easterly point in the UK featuring spoken word, theatre, comedy, and story-telling including galloise funny man Marcel Lucont.

Housemates Festival

21 April-6 May | Brixton House

The festival’s multi-artform line-up will be an explosion of experimental live theatre, comedy, spoken word and dance exploring themes including self-discovery as seen in Shakira Newton’s Things I Can Laugh About Now; nostalgia and partying hard in the shape of British Comedy Guide Pro Performance Awards runner-up 2021, Suchandrika Chakrabarti’s I Miss Amy Winehouse and closing the festival will be Corey Bovell’s Chicken Burger N Chips. More than just an ode to Morely’s, Bovell’s fast-paced witty story is about gentrification and its impact on the lives of its youths in South London. Directed by Almeida Theatre Resident Director T.D Moyo.

The Housemates are Front left – Caitlin Barnett – Comrades In The Dark. Front right – Winnie Arhin – Big Girls Words – Middle L-R – Shakira Newton (Things I Can Laugh About Now), Suchandrika Chakrabarti (I Miss Amy Winehouse), Carly Gianni (Concha), Corey Bovell (Chicken Burger N Chips)

LIFT Festival

23 June-10 July 2022 | Multiple Venues in London

London’s adventurous theatre festival is back with immersive shopping mall app ghost hunting experiences from ZU-UK, a ‘climate opera’ on a beach recreated in Deptford’s Albany and a ‘mystery performance’ at Shoreditch Town Hall made by new creatives.

MAYFEST

13–29 May 2022 | Bristol

Bristol’s trailblazing festival of international contemporary theatre returns with highlights including:

• Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival A candid intellectual portrait of Donna Haraway; prominent scholar in the field of science and technology, feminist, and sci-fi enthusiast.
• HABITAT (UK Premiere) A hymn to the naked body beyond cultural inscriptions and conventional ideals of beauty by choreographer Doris Uhlich.
• Be Part Of (UK Premiere) Be Part Of is an explorative theatre performance led by Monika Truong asking whose voices are heard and represented in our society

Norfolk + Norwich Festival

26 August-11 September 2022 | Multiple Venues in Norwich and Norfolk

Head east to Norwich and Norfolk for some spectacular performance in unusual places.

Highlights include:

Peaceophobia is an unapologetic response to rising Islamophobia around the world. Part car-meet part-theatre, the show explores how you find peace in a world that tells you who you are.

Barbu delves into the origins of the circus in Montreal at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Imagine a fairground, where spectators are left spellbound by remarkable performances and outrageous feats, simple curiosities and unexpected eccentricities.

Fire Songs is an immersive sensory sound experience for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), performed in collaboration with Thetford Singers.

Ventnor Fringe

22-31 July 2022 | Isle of Wight

Eccentric, oddball and non-corporate, Ventnor Fringe is the real deal on the Isle of Wight.

Wandsworth Arts Fringe

10-26 June 2022 | Wandsworth

London’s newest fringe baby is a delight. From premieres of acts like Drag Syndrome (pictured above) to seeing shows in a tiny cupboard venue under Wandsworth Bridge this festival is a must see for Londoners.