non profit industry fringe theatre founded 1977 headquarters great malvern england key people phil linnell chairman products spring festival live music cabaret poetry comedy revenue non profit number of employees voluntary website www.malvernfringe.co.uk the malvern fringe festival is an arts festival founded 1977 which takes place in great malvern england . the main events of the malvern fringe festival are the annual the malvern may day and parade 1 and the annual three day festival held in june as a fringe to the elgar festival . these are accompanied by musical and other live events throughout the year . contents 1 history 2 malvern may day 3 local controversy 4 notable past performers 4.1 classical 4.2 music 4.3 dance 4.4 poetry 4.5 comedy 4.6 literature 4.7 theatre 5 references 6 external links history edit malvern fringe parade malvern fringe festival was founded in 1977 by adrian mealing a teacher in malvern in collaboration with andrew sleigh ian fearnside and phil webb . it originated as a reaction to the malvern festival which was perceived to be biased towards classical music and appealing towards a national and international audience rather than a local one . a further concern was the continued requirement for the local council to underwrite the main festival and the feeling that the public expenditure could be more wisely spent . 2 3 the founding aims of the fringe were to produce a popular varied programme of events for the local people of malvern to bridge the gap between the us and them in the arts and to shake it up a bit in malvern . the first year featured 60 events consisting of poetry world music folk jazz adult and children s theatre performed under the banner of associated events due to the main festival s objections to the term fringe which they considered to be outside of the festival . in 1978 to avoid confusion between the programmes for the two festivals printed with similar designs at the main festival s insistence adrian mealing hand wrote fringe on over 3000 programmes . 4 as the 1980s approached the festival grew into a four week event and the fringe had established its own identity . being centrally located between hereford worcester gloucester and cheltenham the fringe drew a wide audiences from over a 20 mile radius . during the 1980s the festival attracted hundreds of visitors with a programme of 120 events over a two week period . 5 in 1982 malvern fringe arts ltd became a registered charity . 6 by the 1990s the fringe programme had grown to a six week event and was attracting comedy and cabaret acts that were beginning to establish their reputations including eddie izzard lee evans jerry sadowitz jim tavare chris lynam and a double act featuring linda smith and mark thomas plus musical acts as varied as gong juicy lucy voodoo queens and loop guru . may day procession in church street may day procession in priory park in 2006 the fringe re launched its three day festival in june loosely based upon a theme of elgar s interests . one of the highlights of this festival was a bicycle race as cycling was one of elgar s keen interests up the steep incline of great malvern s church street . this event was supported by commonwealth games gold medalist liam killeen who s from malvern and was won by tour de france cyclist arnaud lenoir . 7 the whole three day festival was attended by over 5 000 people . 8 in the autumn of 2006 the fringe launched a folk weekend featuring roy bailey and jez lowe . 9 malvern may day edit the malvern may day and parade are an annual community event which has been held in priory park great malvern on the saturday before the may bank holiday since 1993 . 1 local controversy edit despite an attendance of over 5 000 people the june 2006 festival has been the subject of much negative coverage in the letters pages of the local newspaper with one correspondent calling upon readers to petition the local member of parliament to halt any further fringe activities . 10 notable past performers edit throughout its history malvern fringe featured an impressive array of performers many of whom have gone on to become international stars . classical edit amsterdam loeki stardust quartet 11 national youth recorder orchestra 12 edwin roxburgh and the hendrickse flute quartet music edit 3 daft monkeys 13 daevid allen roy bailey 9 bhundu boys caravan 14 lol coxhill fred zeppelin gong gordon giltrap the groundhogs left right and centre featuring nigel kennedy and caleb juicy lucy kroke 15 jez lowe 9 jim maccool loop guru moishe s bagel 16 rory mcleod and tymon dogg moonshake ozric tentacles 17 hazel o connor pantagruel 18 prophets of da city surgeon suns of arqa june tabor and huw warren tarika sammy barbara thompson s paraphernalia voodoo queens the wurzels zion train dance edit lousie tonkin and lol coxhill poetry edit dannie and joan abse jim maccool john cooper clarke john hegley adrian henri michael horovitz and stan tracey frances horovitz and pete morgan joolz linton kwesi johnson ian mcmillan dick mcbride 19 roger mcgough henry normal lemn sissay gabriel woolf comedy edit rowan atkinson jo brand jack dee jenny eclair lee evans jeremy hardy eddie izzard the kipper family mark lamarr al murray jerry sadowitz linda smith and mark thomas mark steel jim tavare literature edit romesh gunesekera theatre edit oxford university revue the theatre of small convenience references edit a b bard is the theme for may day event . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 29 april 2011 . retrieved 11 december 2011 . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 19 january 1978 . missing or empty title help malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 26 january 1978 . missing or empty title help malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 27 april 1978 . missing or empty title help fringe festival in return to glory days . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 30 july 2004 . retrieved 6 december 2011 . malvern fringe arts ltd charity framework . charity commission . retrieved 6 december 2011 . tough test is no place for easy riders . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 9 june 2006 . retrieved 6 december 2011 . how elgar s music and a bicycle race left a town buzzing . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 8 june 2006 . retrieved 6 december 2011 . a b c folk event could become a regular . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 20 october 2006 . retrieved 6 december 2011 . fringe activity . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 11 august 2006 . retrieved 6 december 2011 . fringe treat for lovers of the recorder . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 1 april 2004 . retrieved 10 december 2011 . world s finest head for town . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 15 february 2002 . retrieved 10 december 2011 . monkeying around . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 28 february 2003 . retrieved 8 december 2011 . prog gig . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 25 october 2002 . retrieved 8 december 2011 . fringe brings in polish band . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 23 august 2002 . retrieved 8 december 2011 . partying like its 1909 for fringe . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 18 may 2007 . retrieved 8 december 2011 . ozric tentacles . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 22 february 2002 . retrieved 8 december 2011 . chamber trio promise elizabethan spectacle . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 19 january 2007 . retrieved 10 december 2011 . fringe welcomes feast of entertainment . malvern gazette . newsquest media group . 22 april 2008 . retrieved 10 december 2011 . external links edit official site v t e fringe theatre festivals in europe central europe budapest fringe festival prague fringe festival british isles great britain brighton fringe buxton festival fringe edinburgh festival fringe free edinburgh fringe festival malvern fringe festival reading fringe festival ireland dublin fringe festival retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title malvern fringe festival & oldid 731772000 categories theatre festivals in the united kingdomspring festivalsmalvern worcestershireculture in worcestershirerecurring events established in 1977fringe festivalscharities based in worcestershirefestivals in worcestershiremusic festivals established in 1977hidden categories pages with citations lacking titles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 12 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view