Last year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival (here are Alaina’s takeaways from the 2025 fest) broke a record for individual ticket sales: more than 33,000 sold. This is especially notable with research on the sector since the pandemic showing that while theater attendance is trending up, it has not recovered its pre-Covid level. Was last year a fluke? Or was it part of a movement back to live performance in Philly?
We at BSR want to find out. This year’s Fringe runs Sept 8-27, and FringeArts will begin announcing the lineup next week, on July 15. As always, our writers are ready to give the festival the most comprehensive coverage of any media outlet, including reviews of dozens of shows you might not hear about any other way.
Here’s the catch. We’ve been talking a lot about our funding challenges this year, and you came through in a big way last March on our Readers Decide campaign, which kept our coverage going this spring and summer (here’s what our writers had to say when you kept them working). Now it’s time to look toward the fall, when our team and our budget are stretched to the limit during the busiest time of the year for Philly theater writers: September’s Fringe Festival.
This year, we need your help to keep that coverage going. So we’re launching the Fringe Coverage Friends Drive. The goal is simple: add at least 30 new Friends of BSR by August 31.
We currently have 257 Friends and 62 Local Media Champions. If we can add at least 30 new Friends and five new Champions, that will ensure our 2026 Fringe coverage goes forward. How do you become a Friend or Champion? Make a one-time donation of $72, or commit to an automatic monthly gift of $5. Local Media Champions step up even more, with a one-time gift of $240 or a monthly gift of $20.
You can make your gift online, or reach out to executive director Neil Bardhan ([email protected]). We also accept checks by mail at:
Broad Street Review
Box 9475
700 S. 7th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147
The Fringe is important to Philadelphia.
"Our Fringe Festival is one of the most innovative cultural and economic engines we have. It gives artists the opportunity to take creative risks, launch new work, and connect with audiences in ways that let visitors know that we care about our city culture,” Councilmember Rue Landau said this week when we told her about our campaign. “That enthusiasm supports not only artists and arts organizations, but also the restaurants, small businesses, and neighborhoods that benefit from a vibrant creative economy. When we celebrate Fringe, we celebrate Philly.”
Fringe artists deserve the media coverage that helps their work reach Philly audiences and keeps their conversations going long after September. Our city deserves an accessible public record of this important cultural work. With your help, BSR can continue to provide it.
All Friends of BSR and Local Media Champions, including those that join as part of the Fringe Coverage Friends Drive, will be invited to an exclusive September 14 happy hour with the BSR team and our writers, so we can say thank you in person and chat about what you’re hoping to see from us in future.
Will you step up to keep our Fringe coverage going? If you’re not able to swing a Friend-level gift, no worries (we get it!). You can still help us enormously by spreading this campaign in your network. The Fringe Coverage Friends Drive runs through August 31. We hope you can help us reach this important milestone and continue our Fringe coverage.
