Liverpool Fringe Festival 2024 full programme and venues

Liverpool Fringe Festival opens next week with this year’s event featuring more than 20 shows over 12 days.

The festival, now in its eighth year, runs from October 1-12.

Venues include The Studio Below in Rodney Street, the Arts Bar, Ship and Mitre, Valley Community Theatre, Toxteth’s VideOdyssey, Tuebrook Hope Centre, and Aloft in North John Street.

It opens at The Studio Below on Tuesday, October 1 with a double bill by ‘Birdhutch’ – Keeping Faith by Steve Bird and The Keys to Life by Brian Hutchinson, followed on the same evening by Hairy B’stards, a one-woman show about self-love, self-loathing and how expensive razors are.

On October 2, the venue hosts a second double bill, Matt Shiel’s romantic comedy Reflections and Bernie Winston’s Wilderness.

Stephen Leach’s Can’t Wait to Leave comes to The Studio Below from October 3-5. Six months, and no plan. With nothing to do but wait out the clock, Ryan finds himself turning towards the unknown.

Matt Shiel presents Guilty by Association at the same venue on October 3 and 8, while comedian Stephen G Titley brings OH!!! JE-RE-MY CORBYN to the festival on October 4.

What Matters in the End, written by Nathan Wedge and being performed on October 5 and 9, features four troubled souls who unwittingly explore the depths of understanding and acceptance.

Meanwhile Steve Bird’s Keeping Faith returns in a double bill with his trilogy Chasing Rainbows at Liverpool Arts Bar’s Studio 3 on October 5.

And Valley Community Theatre in Childwall is the venue for Sab Muthusamy and Rachel Louise Clark’s powerful tale set in 1990s Liverpool, They Don’t Care About Us, on October 5-6.

Ed Bixter’s children’s show with music, songs and dance, Pat the Painting Pig, is at the Art Bar’s Studio 3, and conjurer Steve Price brings his Magic on the Mersey Show to Aloft, both on October 6.

Above: The Studio Below in Rodney Street is hosting many of the festival shows

The second week of the festival sees Pick ‘n’ Mix comedy improv’s Sugar Rush at The Studio Below on October 8.

A free Poetry on the Fringe evening takes place at the Ship and Mitre in Dale Street, and a double bill – Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding and Katie Jarman’s Countdown Conundrum by Keyhole Theatre is at Tuebrook Hope Centre, both on October 9, while Sarah Dunn’s Neurochatter is at The Studio Below on October 9 and 12, with two shows each evening.

In Will Thacker’s ‘political satire for our times’ The Bot, being staged at The Studio Below on October 10, PM Tobias Quantick rebuilds Britain by putting an AI chatbot in charge of everything. But when the AI takes a dark twist, Tobias must decide if the truth is really worth it.

October 11 sees Bernard Winston’s Bad Blood, at The Studio Below, along with Sinead Renaye and Sharon Colpman who present Some People Have ‘IT’.

Meanwhile family friendly The Canterville Ghost: The Musical, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s much-loved story by David Jones and with music by Jack Gloyens, is being staged at VideOdyssey in Windsor Street on October 11-12.

And the final day of the festival programme also features Tony Vale’s Fall from Grace and improv The Films that Never Were by Broken Chair, both at The Studio Below.

Liverpool Fringe Festival takes place between October 1-12. Full programme details HERE