The New Orleans Fringe Festival, Nov. 16- 20, 2011 will be a five-day mind-blowing spectacle of 70 shows from New Orleans and all over the country performing at 34 venues throughout the city, primary in the Marigny and Bywater.  Tickets are $8 with the one-time purchase of a Fringe button ($3).  Visit www.nofringe.org for more info about tickets and show times.

What is Fringe?  Wild, weird, fresh original theater of all types:  A big-top goes berserk, a bona fide wedding bares as well as binds, e.e. cummings and Jackson Pollock get operatic, hip-hop happens, some serious schooling on the subjects of sharks and the system, three aerialists take the trapeze to bed-bath-and-beyond, beautiful bodies put the “belly” in “button”, shadow puppets shiver to the dark words of Poe, and you’ll get to find out whether you really could’ve danced all night…That is just the beginning. Visit www.nofringe.org for the entire lineup and schedule.

Tickets are available at Mardi Gras Zone and at www.nofringe.org before the festival.  During the Festival, buy tickets at Mardi Gras Zone, at venues, or at the Free-For-All Tent on the corner of Press and Dauphine in the Marigny.  Tickets are $8 with the one-time purchase of a festival button ($3), a 5-show pass is $30, and an all-access pass is $100.

The Festival features 24 shows that were identified through a unique peer review process as high-quality, original, fringe-y theater.  These “Fringe-Managed Venue” shows are presented in six performance venues at offbeat theaters and unusual spaces:  Shadowbox Theatre, Mardi Gras Zone Warehouse, Den of Muses, Marigny Opera House, Café Istanbul in the New Orleans Healing Center, and Luthjen’s Dance Hall.

The Bring Your Own Venue (BYOV) option greatly expands the scope and flavor of the festival by encouraging artists to organize their own spaces throughout the city. These venues include Zeitgeist, NOCCA, Michalopoulos Studio, Mudlark Public Theatre, Southern Rep, Big Top, Byrdie’s, John Paul’s and more. This year, BYOVs have exploded in size and energy with 35 BYOV groups featured.

The wildly successful free spoken word feature event returns this year in “Writing the Edge” with New Orleans’ hardest hitting poets, November 19 at 7:00 p. m. and 9:00 p m, at The Maison, 508 Frenchman.

Visit the Free-For-All Tent at the corner of Press and Dauphine in the Marigny for Peep Show Previews with free Nola Brew, the Friday Night Tent Party with “Bodhi3” and “The Wasted Lives”, Busker’s Happy Hour, and the Fringe Trunk Show and Art Market.

Got kids?  In addition to the kid-friendly shows at venues, Family Fringe will feature a range of free kids arts activities, performances, workshops, open-mic, Nola Rising Paint Party, puppet shows, drum circle, double-dutching, and more.

The eccentric GoodChildren Fringe Parade will be rolling down St. Claude from Poland Avenue at 2:00 p. m. on Saturday, November 19 to the rhythms of the GoodChildren Marching Band and to the steps of performers and neighborhood types alike.

New this year is the Yard Art Tour (YAT-1), a self-guided walking/driving public art tour organized by the Fringe. Before and after shows, audience can drift around the neighborhood looking at a bit of fun, wacky, poignant, pointed yard art.

Fringe may be changing, but it is still funky.  Don’t miss it ths year.