The New Zealand Fringe Festival, based in Wellington and held every year in late February/early March, is a community based open-access festival providing the most concentrated mix of new talent across all arts forms in Wellington.

Our point of difference from other festivals is that the Fringe Festival is completely open to anyone wishing to stage an original piece of art in any artform - there are no limits or constraints and Fringe encourages participants to take a creative and artistic risk. They pick to be part of the Fringe Festival rather than us picking them, and anyone who registers a show with Fringe and pays the registration fee has an automatic place in the Fringe programme. The Fringe organization is there to help the participants be the best that they can be under the auspices of the brand's umbrella, and the marketing and media "pull" and street "cred" that this provides.

Fringe is about grass-roots arts and culture and about emerging, developing talent, and for more than 20 years the New Zealand Fringe Festival has been providing a stage for cutting-edge creative endeavors, delivering on our legacy of being a catalyst for new and original homegrown arts and entertainment.

Fringe is recognised as a unique launch pad for the arts in New Zealand, and from Flight of the Conchords to the Lonesome Buckwhips, Rhys Darby to Dai Henwood, and Strike Percussion to Footnote Dance, the NZ Fringe has played a significant role in helping emerging artists to achieve bigger and brighter things, both within New Zealand and on the international stage.