The 2013 San Diego International Fringe Festival marked a historic turning point for the city’s independent arts scene, debuting as the first-ever Fringe festival in the region. Spanning July 1st through July 7th, the festival executed a dense, high-energy takeover of Downtown San Diego, centering its operations at the 10th Avenue Theatre and the Bristol Hotel. This ambitious launch featured nearly 50 artist groups and over 200 individual performances, introducing San Diego to the radical Fringe model: an unjuried, uncensored platform where 100% of ticket sales were returned directly to the creators. The atmosphere was one of raw discovery, transforming vacant storefronts and traditional stages into a 24-hour laboratory for theater, dance, and “the wonderfully weird.”

The success of the 2013 season was solidified by a diverse slate of Fringie Award winners that showcased the festival’s international and local reach. The debut was anchored by a spirit of high-risk creativity, proving that San Diego had a massive appetite for fringe-style performance. By the time the final curtain fell at the Bristol Hotel’s Fringe Club, the festival had not only met its attendance goals but had established a new cultural holiday that would scale across the border into Mexico and beyond in the years to follow. We also won Outstanding Special Event: San Diego Fringe Festival (Joint winner with La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival)!!

Explore the award winners and artifacts that launched the #sdfringe legacy on the following pages!