Fringe Festival in Boulder ranges from funny to bizarre

A preview of the craziness that is to come

Just imagine if the Warped Tour or Mile High Music Festival replaced all the musicians with grassroots-style performers that did everything from strange comedy acts to juggling and dance. Yeah, we can't really imagine that either. But that is basically what the 5th Annual Fringe Festival in Boulder is. Fringe festivals occur all over the world and are a conglomeration of perfomances that are considered "on the fringe" of entertainment. In other words, this isn't the kind of music or theater entertainment you are used to.

"Creative," "bizarre" and "crazy" are words that best describe these acts that were previewed on the opening day of the festival at the University of Naropa's Performing Arts Center. Each act, that will be entertaining through the event had one minute of time to give a preview of the act they perform. The Crabaret Band opened things up for the evening with a musical/variety/comedy set to warm up the crowd. Then guest host Jimmy Hogg introduced each performance as they took the crowd from introspective thought to straight-up laughter, but only for a minute at a time. There were amazing dance pieces, incredibly bizarre monologues and some seriously hilarious, mildly crass comedy routines. If you are already interested in or even curious about what is to come, check out the Boulder Fringe Festival acts which will be occuring for the next 11 (yes, 11) days all around Boulder!