Lancaster's first Fringe Festival runs Thursday, May 21 through Sunday, May 24, 2026, with over 70 acts staged across 20 downtown venues. Theater, music, dance, comedy, film, poetry, painting, puppetry, and fire art: independent artists from across the county take over Queen Street, Market Street, and the alleys between for four days of pay-what-you-decide programming.
The full schedule lives at the festival's umbrella event page, with each performance (155 individual time slots in total) also listed on our events calendar.
How tickets work
One $10 wristband gets you into any Fringe venue for the entire weekend. Each performance uses Pay-What-You-Decide pricing: you attend the show, then choose your own ticket price afterward. A Fringe volunteer at the venue can take payment, or you can submit it online through the festival's donation page. Every dollar of individual ticket money goes directly to the creators.
Where to find the Info Hub
Festival headquarters is at 100 N. Queen Street, outside Lancaster Art Vault. Look for the volunteers in Fringe t-shirts (also available for purchase at $30). Public restrooms are across the street in Ewell Plaza.
Picks across the four days
- Thursday Kickoff Mixer at Bar188 inside Southern Market, 9:00 PM (21+). The festival's opening party.
- Fringe RagRug Mural with Shauna and Renea, a four-day collaborative art project anchored at Shot & Bottle. Drop in any time.
- The Sock Night before Christmas, a sock puppet musical from Creative Works of Lancaster, running multiple showtimes at Zoetropolis.
- Channel Eleven with Hilary & Keysha, a recurring sketch/talk-show format at Hempfield Apothetique.
- Fire Art with Solara Noir, Pyro Princess, short fire performances scattered through Friday and Saturday nights at Ewell Plaza and Shot & Bottle.
- Mobile Silent Disco with What The Float on Sunday afternoon, a roaming wireless-headphone dance party that moves between Shot & Bottle and Ewell Plaza.
- Sunday Afterparty at Zoetropolis, 5:00 PM, capping the weekend.
The 19 venues
The festival sprawls across nearly every corner of downtown Lancaster:
- Lancaster Central Market, 23 N Market Street
- Southern Market, 100 S Queen Street
- Shot & Bottle, 2 N Queen Street
- The Trust Performing Arts Center, 37 N Market Street
- The Midnight Oil, 44 N Christian Street
- Tellus 360, 24 E King Street
- Demuth Museum, 120 E King Street
- Zoetropolis Cinema Stillhouse, 112 N Water Street
- The Ware Center, 42 N Prince Street
- The Imperial, 26 E Chestnut Street
- The Candy Factory, 342 N Queen Street
- Binns Park & Ewell Plaza, 123 N Queen Street
- Lancaster Art Vault, 100 N Queen Street
- PCAD Art Garden, 103 E King Street
- Escape. On Queen, 43 N Queen Street
- Hempfield Apothetique, 100 W Walnut Street
- St. James Episcopal Church, 119 N Duke Street
- Urban Arts House, 430 W Orange Street
- People & Things, 17 N Prince Street (2nd floor)
About the festival
Lancaster Fringe Fest is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The inaugural festival is sponsored by Freeburn Law and produced in collaboration with Creative Works of Lancaster, with additional support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Millersville University, and CareerLink. For artist bios and venue details, visit the festival website.
