Greater Manchester Fringe 2026
Kristy Stott, Theatre EditorBook now
Greater Manchester Fringe 2025
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
Greater Manchester Fringe Festival celebrates 15 years this July with another month-long showcase of bold new theatre, comedy, cabaret, spoken word, musicals and family shows. One of the North’s most accessible theatre festivals, it brings together emerging artists, established independent companies and first-time performers for a packed programme of affordable work, offering the chance to experience brilliantly lo-fi performance in some of Greater Manchester’s most intimate and unexpected venues.
For one month, audiences can discover more than 100 shows, spanning everything from brand-new theatre and laugh-out-loud comedy to experimental theatre, live music and the wonderfully unexpected. Many productions will go on to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, while others are created especially for Manchester audiences, making this one of the best places to discover brilliant new work before everyone else does.
Performances pop up everywhere from The Kings Arms and 53two to Gullivers, The Peer Hat, Salford Arts Theatre and The Squad House in Stockport, with pubs, studios, community spaces and independent theatres all becoming part of the Fringe.
As ever, it’s the eclectic mix that makes the Fringe such a joy to explore. Highlights include the eerie puppetry and fortune-telling of The Augur, Stephen Smith’s gothic retelling One Man Poe: The Black Cat and The Raven, workplace supervillain comedy I’ve Been Expecting You, Will Danes: Presented by Mental Illness, and the heartfelt solo show Every Single Sound in the World. It’s exactly the kind of line-up that makes Fringe festivals so exciting – you never quite know what you’re going to stumble across next.
Whether you’re planning a full day of Fringe-hopping or simply taking a chance on a show you’ve never heard of, Greater Manchester Fringe Festival remains one of the region’s best celebrations of independent performance. Fifteen years on, it’s still championing the kind of ambitious, inventive theatre that keeps Greater Manchester’s creative scene buzzing.
