The 20th Macao City Fringe Festival, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), will be held in January next year, aiming to spread the creative and adventurous spirit and encourage artists to create works that show the city’s characteristics and cultural connotations from multiple perspectives. The call for proposals of programmes and performance venues is now open; the deadline for applications is 5pm on 31 July 2020.
The Macao City Fringe Festival strives to break the barriers of traditional performance venues, bringing a variety of artistic and creative works to the city. Adopting the concept of “All around the city, our stages, our patrons, our artists”, the Festival seeks productions that can show the city’s characteristics and cultural connotations from different perspectives. All local artistic and cultural associations, programme curators, producers, art practitioners and those interested in artistic creation are invited to submit their proposals, as well as those responsible for the venues to submit proposals of performance venues of any type or format, providing exhibition or performance spaces for the Festival.
The call for proposals of programmes is now open. Macao art practitioners and non-profit art and cultural associations registered at the Identification Services Bureau are welcome to submit their proposals. All forms of performing arts and artistic activities will be accepted, including local, overseas works or cross-regional collaborations, with priority given to local productions, site-specific productions and productions related to the local culture and community. In addition to the open call for independent programmes, this year’s Fringe Festival will continue to collect programmes for the “Crème de la Fringe” project. Participants are required to curate a “mini festival” based on a specific community or customized theme (the “mini festival” must include no less than three performances and two extended activities, and the maximum budget for the entire programme is up to MOP500,000). With this project, IC hopes to further attract the participation of local producers and curators and encourage productions related to the local culture and community. In order to encourage local groups to create original productions and continue to offer them performance opportunities, the local and cross-regional productions of the 20th Macao City Fringe Festival with great potential will have the chance to be presented in the 32nd Macao Arts Festival.
Furthermore, the Festival will invite industry professionals, programme curators and producers from other regions to enjoy the performances, and will serve as an exchange platform for local artists and foreign producers, thereby creating more opportunities for both local and foreign art practitioners to exchange with one another and showcase their works.
The regulations, application form for proposal of programmes and the Fringe venue registration form can be downloaded on IC’s website at www.icm.gov.mo. Applicants may submit the completed application forms and relevant documents in person at the Cultural Affairs Bureau building located at Tap Siac Square during office hours, or by post or email to fringe@icm.gov.mo, indicating the following on the envelope or on the subject: “Attn: Division of Performing Arts, Cultural Affairs Bureau, 20th Macao City Fringe Festival – Call for Proposals of Programmes”. Applicants who propose performance venues may also submit the completed Fringe venue registration form by email to fringe@icm.gov.mo. For enquiries, please contact Ms. U through tel. no. 8399 6660 during office hours or email to mcu@icm.gov.mo.