Totally Stockholm 1
“’Round the fringe of official Festival drama, th
ere seems to be more private enterprise than before... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!,” So wrote Scottish playwright and journalist Robert Kemp in 1948, thereby coining the title for the Fringe Festival. A festival that unofficially had launched a year earlier, when eight uninvited theatre companies turned up to Edinburgh’s International Festival, and took over the city’s smaller and more unconventional venues for their productions. The aim was obvious, to target the large assembled theatre crowds, to showcase their own alternative theatre and performances. To say they succeeded is a bit of an understatement, considering the Edinburgh Fringe today has grown into the world’s largest art festival. Last year a staggering 55,000 performances went ahead, comprised of over 3,500 different shows in over 300 different venues. The celebration of alternative art and entertainment has spread across the globe, where hundreds of different Fringe festivals now take place. Most importantly from a Stockholm perspective, this year it’s ten years since the Fringe concept found its way to our little corner of the world. The three founders of the Stockholm Fringe, high-school friends Adam Potrykus, Helena Bunker and Lina Karlmark, are still proudly pulling the strings and this year decided to do things a little differently for the anniversary edition of the festival. All the performances in the programme – 150 in total – are the work of female, non-binary or transgender people, the argument being that women are underrepresented within the performing arts, with their stories left out or muted, thus undermining the freedom of speech. Apart from that chosen path, the spirit of the Fringe is what it has always been. Various art forms mix freely, international and local acts do too and daring art is prevalent throughout. Just as in all previous incarnations of the festival. To help festival-goers navigate the vast catalogue of performances, the organisers have broken down the shows into easily-digestible categories such as ‘Night Out With Mom’, ‘Shock & Challenge Me’ and ‘I Want to Impress My Date’. But if we rewind ten years or so, to pre-Fringe Festival Stockholm, alternative Fringe culture hadn’t gained a foothold in a country where theatre and performance art rarely ventured outside the conventional frameworks. Helena and Lina came to the conclusion that if they wanted to see a Fringe Festival in Stockholm they would have to do something about it themselves. They contacted Adam and soon thereafter Stockholm was able to experience an event where the audience could expect the unexpected. When the three founders reflect back on the previous decade of Stockholm Fringe festivals, they say they are overwhelmed by the incredible artistic force of the independent artistic landscape they have witnessed, and they deem it to have been such a privilege to have experienced the strength and passion that characterises the whole global Fringe movement. Stockholm Fringe Festival, or Stoff, is turning ten years old; did you ever think you would reach this point? Adam: Yes and no! No one ever dedicates a year’s worth of work just to do a pilot. We’re all a bunch of dreamers, and the dream of an annual festival, similar to our global peer festivals, has always been there from the start. Having said that, sailing the Fringe boat can be a little bit like playing a computer game. You need to skilfully ‘joystick’ your way through the ‘current level’ of the game, before you can advance into the ‘next room’. Does that make sense? We’ve never had any doubt in the force of the Fringe movement. Along the way, encouragement from artists, audiences and funding bodies, and the spreading of the Fringe format in Scandinavia, has motivated us to keep doing what we do. Helena: Well, our aim was certainly to reach this point, but before launching year one it was hard 12 to know. As soon as we were ‘out’, we quickly noticed the big interest in this sort of artistic platform and we knew we had to keep going, no matter what. Lina: Ten years is a milestone for us for sure, the concept of the Fringe is becoming established in Stockholm and we are proud to have been part of that. What’s been your personal favourite Stoff moment over the ten years? A: Favourite moments are the kind that shouldn’t really leave the vaults. Let’s call them bloopers. Think: an entire baroque orchestra forgotten at Arlanda Airport! The real highlights are the passionate artists, volunteers and crew that make magic from few or no resources. A few years back, we had a Finnish group called Recovery Laboratory who took over Kummelholmen in Skärholmen. It’s an old derelict heating plant, a brutalist beauty made from concrete that screamed to be turned into a Fringe stage. The artists took over the space and lived in it, while creating a labyrinth maze of installations, music rooms, circus spaces and packed it with performers. It was the ultimate Fringe camp, with young creative people, who delivered an audience participatory experience that few visitors will forget. Total wow factor. With near zero budget. The group was awarded the major Stoff trophy that year! H: There are so many different, funny, worrying, mad and wonderful moments that it is hard to pin