newy.com.au – Newcastle Fringe Festival will open on Saturday 14 March with a free five-hour street party in Hamilton, as the 2026 program expands across Newcastle and Port Stephens with pop-up performances, family events and 24 premieres.
Fringe FEAST will run from 4pm to 9pm on Beaumont Street, supported by the City of Newcastle and Hello Hamilton, with organisers promising live music, comedy, cabaret, dance and children’s activities across the precinct. The program includes a First Nations cultural performance, Pretty Amazing Jono, a dance workshop with Top Rock Studios, Creative Creatures, a silent disco, face and portrait painting, and the Little Hands – Big Fringe community art project.
Chance2Dance will also feature young dancers with disabilities, alongside roving magicians, dancers and other performers. Comedian Eddy Rockefeller will host the evening before main stage performances from 3Degrees, Les Divine Folles à Newy, Ark Hive and KehdiDoofi Disqo.
The festival will then head to Soldiers Point Memorial Hall on Sunday 15 March for a family-friendly event supported by Port Stephens Council and headlined by The Pretty Amazing Show. Newcastle Fringe chair Brooke Twyford said the festival was looking beyond the city as it grew. “Newcastle Fringe Festival is thrilled to be bringing a taste of Fringe to our neighbouring community in Port Stephens,” she said. “As the festival grows, we’re finding new ways to connect artists with audiences across the region – sharing the Fringe spirit and activating spaces for more families to enjoy affordable live performance.”
Port Stephens Council Mayor Leah Anderson said the event would mark the festival’s first visit to the area. “We are looking forward to welcoming the Newcastle Fringe Festival to Port Stephens for the first time. It is a wonderful chance for our residents to come together, celebrate our unique identity, and support talented artists.”
Back in Newcastle, the festival will also activate The Headphone Project on Darby Street with free Fringe Pop-Up Previews across the second and third weekends. The previews will run on Fridays from 4.30pm to 6.30pm and Saturdays from 11am to 1pm, offering short performances designed to introduce audiences to shows in the festival program.
Organisers say the 2026 festival will present 24 premieres, including Cathy Crowley – Tripping up that Hill, I HATE MEN As Read By Men, Tales by the Fireside: Folk Horror Trilogy, Once Upon a Time, Maktub, Two Brothers, A Gum Tree on Summer Road, Out of My Mind, The Progress of the Storm and Alice Terry’s Makeshift Choir. A separate Newcastle Next event will again showcase emerging local musicians from schools across the region after selling out in 2025.
