Art and culture event coming back to the city in 2025.
An exciting new Fringe Festival has been announced for next year with the goal of bringing heritage and culture back to Milton Keynes.
The month-long extravaganza will feature music, comedy, drama and art in a variety of venues across the city, including some of the parks. The festival was previously a popular feature in MK until the Covid pandemic of 2020, and has not been organised since then.
The new event is being brought to Milton Keynes by MK Fringe Festival, a Community Interest Company (CIC) whose new chair of directors is actor and dancer Jay Virgo. He unveiled the plans at last night’s Meet of MK business network gathering, in the city’s Unity Place.
“The whole concept of fringe is that it’s for everyone, by everyone” said Jay. “Whether you are a musician, an actor, a performer, a drag queen, a stand-up comedian – whatever you are, fringe is for you.
“It is by the people, for the people and it’s meant to be an inclusive space. Our intent is to make the festival completely free and accessible to everybody.”
The festival has been planned for July – across the entire month there will be an array of performances throughout the city. The aim is to have entertainment all the way from the main railway station, across the city centre, and up to the parks.
“Everywhere you go, you will see fringe because art is so important to our culture,” added Jay. “We have MK Gallery here but we need more space for artists, especially local artists. The whole point of fringe is give artists who are not yet established a platform, and to be paid a fair rate.”
And he called upon business leaders and community representatives attending Meet of MK to collaborate with MK Fringe Festival and get involved with helping to bring art and entertainment to the city next year.
The popular networking event drew a wide range of guests from across the business spectrum and included presentations from MyMiltonKeynes local business promoters, the Willen Hospice and Camphill MK charities, iFly indoor skydiving, MK Breakers basketball club, and the science and technology-led MK STEM Awards.
