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The Fall Phantasm featured costumes, dancing, story telling, games and other activities, food and refreshments. Hundreds attended the fundraising event, which was organized by the recently formed Marquette Fringe organization, was held at Lakenenland Sculpture Park near Marquette Oct. 2. (Joseph Zyble photo)
Group strives to bring something different to the arts By Joseph Zyble
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here are “the arts,” a term that evokes customary forms of human creative expression—dance, orchestra, live theatre, painting and so forth—but there are also other forms of art. Some of these other art forms are considered experimental, experiential, edgy, unexpected, and even yetto-be discovered. This less common side of artistic expression is where the recently founded Marquette Fringe plans to concentrate … and proliferate. Mike Bradford could be considered the protagonist in the effort to create Marquette Fringe and he now serves as its president. Bradford, whose always had a great appreciation for the arts, said he felt compelled to try to add something to the art scene that existed in the area. “I was already very impressed with the arts community here. For a city of 22,000 and a county of 66,000, I could not believe the level of artists and talent that resided here,” he said. Bradford, who is the event-market manager at Travel Marquette, got an idea from a co-worker, Susan Estler, director of the agency, who suggested
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Marquette Monthly
Streaking in Tongues, the experimental father/son music project consisting of dad Ronnie and son Elliott Ferguson, were among the performers at the Fall Phantasm event. (Alex Cowles photo)
he consider looking into a “fringe festival.” It was something Bradford had never heard of. Fringe Festivals trace their origin to 1947 when several theatre companies showed up uninvited to
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the very first Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland. Denied entrance, the uninvited troupes held their performances on the outskirts of the festival. A local journalist who was impressed with the artists wrote about how they performed “round the fringe” of the official festival. The uninvited performers began referring to themselves as “fringe adjuncts,” and a movement was born. “When I found out what a Fringe Festival was it just seemed perfect. I gathered a bunch of great people and together we were able to create Marquette Fringe,” he said. The effort began in November of 2019 and by April 2020 Marquette Fringe was formally established as non-profit organization. Marquette Fringe’s ultimate goal is produce a full-fledged Marquette Fringe Festival. Fringe festivals, which are held in communities around the world, have many things in common: they’re easy for anyone to participate in; they offer a variety of performing arts; they’re uncensored— some may be family-friendly while other may be
