Welcome to the fabulous
Nelson Fringe Festival

5-14 March 2026

We’re an annual festival that takes place every March in Nelson Whakatū, New Zealand, giving a stage to actors, comedians, storytellers, dancers, musicians and more.

At the moment we are adjusting the widgets and tapping the pipes so that we can open applications around August 2025. If you are local with an idea we'd love to hear from you and support you to being part of the Fringe.

Click here to find out more about us.

Check out the winners and nominees for the 2025 Fringe Awards!

Click here to see the festival programme
that happened in March 2025.

We pick our festival dates so that we're nestled in between NZ Fringe in Wellington and Dunedin Fringe Festival - like a little fringey three-way cuddle.

This means that fringe artists can tour to all three NZ fringes, as well as the the big ones in Oz: Perth Fringe World, Adelaide Fringe and Newcastle Fringe Festival.