History of the Fringe - then and now

When the Windsor Festival was launched in 1969 by Yehudi Menuhin, it had an almost exclusive emphasis on classical music. One of its performers, Chris Brooker, was singing in the Beethoven Missa Solemnis but his wife Nicola was so shocked at the prices she said: “I’m going to set up a Fringe”. Which she did, that same year, making it the oldest Fringe Festival in England and the second oldest in the UK after Edinburgh.

It consisted, at first, of a group of six: the Brookers, the McCullochs, a treasurer and a disenchanted soloist from the main festival. They met monthly and put together a programme.

And from that it grew.

In 1975 the Fringe went into hibernation so that the committee could throw its weight behind the movement to secure a permanent arts centre in Windsor. That done, the Fringe resurrected itself in the mid-1980s as an independent organisation. Since then both the Fringe and the Windsor Festival have evolved considerably and occasionally have joint events.

The Fringe has continued to offer a mixed programme of the arts and entertainment: music of all kinds, drama, visual arts (including photography and sculpture), film, poetry, informative walks in Windsor and surrounding areas, gastronomy – and even conkers.

It is the policy of the Fringe to promote fresh talent within the framework of an eclectic programme and many young artists, including jazz performer Jamie Cullum and soprano Dame Emma Kirkby, have cut their teeth in the Fringe and gone on to become household names. The Fringe also likes to promote local talent, and to keep costs as low as possible – so it includes many ‘free’ events. Over the past few years there have been major developments.

The Fringe’s international playwriting award (The Windsor Fringe Marriott Award for New Drama Writing) now annually attracts several hundred scripts for 30-minute one-act plays and, very year, apart from voluntary readers, prestigious judges such as Hilary Mantel, Nina Bawden CBE, Howard Panter (Ambassadors Theatre Group), Fay Weldon CBE, Nell Dunn, Kenneth Branagh, Iqbal Khan, give their time to help promote new drama writing talent.

A further great success has been the Fringe’s expanding programme of the Artists’ Open House Scheme in which local artists show their work in houses in Windsor.

The Fringe committee has always been voluntary, consisting of a small group passionate about the arts and with a commitment to promoting new talent within the community. At the moment we have a local GP, two musicians, a clothes designer/silk painter, an ex-research worker, an accountant, an actress, an ex-restaurant manager and a complementary therapist. And we now have a paid journalist who promotes the Fringe and our website: www.windsorfringe.co.uk

We also have dedicated helpers including a senior industrialist, a photographer, a TV producer/director, an artist/jewellery designer and a theatre manager.

If you are interested in joining us, whether you have a lot or a little time to offer, please contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Traditionally, the Fringe occurs at the end of September into early October. Our programme becomes public by early August. We hope you will find out what is on via our website – and that we will see you at some of our exciting events.