As a result, there will be no Chelsea Fringe in 2024. While there may well be future iterations of the Fringe, this will require a new prospective director and volunteer group to come forward with a credible vision for the Fringe’s future (and any interested groups are encouraged to contact info@chelseafringe.com for an informal discussion with one of the current team).

Outgoing Fringe director Tim Richardson says:

‘It’s been a joy and a privilege to lead the Fringe across these years. The main thing I did not predict is the number of friends I have made through doing this, and the value of the spirit of comradeship among us. All our decisions, large and small, are made at our monthly meetings, after discussion by majority vote, and as a result it’s been an amazingly collaborative venture. I’m so grateful to all those who have participated in the Fringe and created such imaginative events, to the smaller number who have come forward to volunteer and given of their time and creative thought, and to the many who have supported the festival in other ways — not least by actually going to the events, which can sometimes sound a bit challenging ‘on paper’! But now it feels like it’s the right time for all of us to step back and allow the Fringe to develop under new leadership, or else for the festival to go quiet for a while.’

About the Chelsea Fringe

The Fringe was conceived in 2010 as an alternative to the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show, and initially incurred the wrath of the almighty Royal Horticultural Society and its shows team. But it forged on ­– in the face of threats of legal action, and with scant financial resources – and quickly established itself as a truly alternative showcase of gardening/landscape activity embracing not only horticulture (mainly in the form of community and guerrilla gardening) but also the arts, crafts, performance, history, and therapeutic practice.

Since then, there have been more than 2,200 events (many of these being festivals which themselves comprise multiple events), mostly in London but also across the UK and abroad. Some 25 countries have participated, from Japan to Australia to Canada to Italy to Slovenia to Austria, and the Fringe team has made many friends around the world as a result. Events have ranged from large-scale performances and ‘happenings’ (like the year when the Fringe took over the space in front of Battersea Power Station prior to its redevelopment) to tiny pop-up events for just a handful of people (such as the treehouse cinema in a Hackney community garden). The Fringe even had a royal visit in its first year, when the then Duchess of Cornwall (now the Queen) visited four Fringe sites in Hackney — high-profile attention which helped save at least one of these projects from imminent closure.

What has made the Chelsea Fringe even more remarkable is that all of this has been achieved without the help of corporate or civic sponsorship or funding of any kind (barring its second year, when the National Trust supported the festival).

The Chelsea Fringe is a community interest company (CIC) founded by Festival Director Tim Richardson in 2011. All progress to date has been achieved by a team of dedicated volunteers donating their time. The Chelsea Fringe is entirely independent of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, though acts with its support.

We hope that holding the meeting online will enable veterans, enthusiasts and the Fringe-curious from far and wide to join in.

If you’d like to join us, email info@chelseafringe.com for the link to the meeting.

Now in its twelfth year, the Chelsea Fringe celebrates community and guerrilla gardening, and encourages links between gardens and art, literature, music, cookery, history, crafts, and ecology – everything from grassroots community garden projects to avant-garde art installations.

The Chelsea Fringe is a true fringe festival – based on the Edinburgh model – in that nothing is commissioned or curated.  We’re all about harnessing and spreading the excitement and energy that fizzes around gardens and gardening and giving people the freedom and opportunity to express themselves through the medium of plants and gardens.

We look for Chelsea Fringe events that create rich and idiosyncratic experiences that engage the imagination, rather than ‘put on a show’. Our open-access principle means that just about anything goes – as long as it’s on-topic, interesting and legal, and relates to gardens, growing or landscape. We are always surprised – and delighted – by what pops up each year, fresh from the imagination of our horticultural comrades!

And you don’t have to be in in London – despite its name, the festival reaches well beyond Chelsea; not just to every quarter of London, but also to the far corners of the UK and around the world. Events have taken place all over the UK and in 20 different countries since we started in 2012. Last year, there was a ‘satellite’ Fringe festival in Seattle, Washington, for the first time!

Whether you’re a Fringe first-timer or a Fringe veteran, an individual, a community garden or a larger organisation, we’d love you to get involved. Send us an email at info@chelseafringe.com with as many details as possible about your planned Chelsea Fringe 2023 event.  We’ll reply, with questions and suggestions based on our experience, to make your event zing!  Once your idea gets the Fringe thumbs-up, we’ll let you know how to register online.  Our early-bird rates apply until 31 March. 

The Chelsea Fringe continues unsponsored and unfunded, and remains powered by volunteer help. We think it’s something rare and – we hope – precious in the gardens world, so please support us by taking part this year. We actively encourage events which are free and/or low-budget, in contrast to other shows and festivals. It’s amazing what can be achieved with enthusiasm, imagination and goodwill! So come join us!

If you’ve got an idea for a Fringe event, but nowhere to stage it, this could just what you’re looking for:

Waterloo Green – a lovely park a stone’s throw from Waterloo station where you can enjoy the wildflowers and look for dragonflies over the pond. 

Red Cross Garden – an award winning open space which BOST renovated and restored to its original Victorian layout in 2005. Steeped in history it was built along with its neighbouring cottages in 1886. 
.
Don’t forget we’re looking for quirky ideas in the true Fringe spirit, for example a workshop, art exhibition, or a garden-based community event. Walks, talks, singing and dancing also welcome. As long as it’s interesting and legal, and on the subject of gardens, flowers, veg-growing or landscape.

If you’d like to stage your event in one of the Bankside Open Spaces, or if you have other questions, get in touch at info@chelseafringe.com. Our team of volunteers is here to help you.

There’s still time take advantage of our Early Bird registration fees, until 31 March.

Bankside Open Spaces Trust is an environmental and volunteering charity working to protect, preserve and enhance parks and gardens in London’s SE1 and surrounding areas.

What kind of projects is the Fringe looking for? The Chelsea Fringe manifesto, if that doesn’t sound too up-the-revolution, is fantastically inclusive. We celebrate anything to do with gardens and gardening as long as it’s legal. The basic ingredient is plants, but that could be growing them – in allotments, on roundabouts, behind private front doors, up posh hotel walls; turning them into art or high fashion, serenading them, writing odes, telling stories, putting them on the menu and even into cocktail shakers. In fact, it’s probably easier to say what we’re not looking for (that would be burger vans; thanks for getting in touch but we’re not that kind of festival!).

What makes a good Fringe project? The best ones really engage their audiences, non-gardeners as well as the green-fingered. For instance, past Festivals have included a new medicinal garden where visitors could learn how to brew up potions, a celebration of sci-fi author John Wyndham with a triffid-making workshop, and a mobile ice-cream machine using community-grown plants to create crazy flavours. I know that if I get a tingle from the first email enquiry, so will our visitors when they read the listing.

The other ingredient is more practical. While we can help projects discover their inner Fringe-y-ness, in the end they have to be well organised and self-propelled.

What happens once my project is approved? We don’t have paid staff (or an office). Instead the Fringe operates a kind of buddy system. Once we think your project is suitable, we hook you up with a volunteer coordinator, to help you sign up. You will need to have all the listing nitty gritty finalised first, such as health and safety assessments and a picture ready, because what you put into the form is what goes online; “TBA” is not OK.

Early-birding is worth it, if you can. Registration gives projects access to tips on marketing and using social media, and our PR person will include you in the Fringe publicity campaign, bolstering your own. Our media partner BBC Radio London will begin previewing the festival once registration starts.

We usually have two public meetings, in London; a chance to pick the brains of fellow Fringers (Fringies? Fringe-istas?), for both co-ordinators and veteran project organisers. It’s unclear at the moment whether one or two meetings will go ahead, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Is it possible to set up a project outside London? Absolutely. The Chelsea Fringe has gone viral. We generally say you need five or six events in one place to qualify as a satellite fringe, and in 2019 (our last ‘live’ Festival) we added Cornwall, Henley-on-Thames, Kent and the Isle of Mull; Fukuoka and Nagoya in Japan. We have had events in Argentina and Canada, Ljubljana, Brighton, Bristol and Vienna and we would love to see more. There are also lone events and other exclusively online events.

Is there any funding or sponsorship available? Not unless you raise it yourself. To say we operate on a shoestring is to flatter the Fringe bank balance. That’s why we have so many different registration rates, to enable lone artists and garden designers, underfunded community groups and primary schools, and every size of charity to take part. This is a grass-roots festival.

Interested in taking part? Email info@chelseafringe.com

It would be fantastic to have you with us during this unique festival in 2022, whether it’s your first time or your 11th! See a selection of our last live 2019 events and stories here on Instagram

You can view all of last year’s virtual events here.

Event registration is now open.

In the meantime, do get in touch and send us an email to info@chelseafringe.com with as many details as possible about your plans for 2022. We’ll reply, with questions and suggestions based on our experience to make your event zing!  Once your idea gets the Fringe thumbs-up, we’ll let you know how to register online.

Also see Get Involved.

The festival runs from 21st to 29th May: that’s nine days including two weekends to fill with exciting gardening projects and events.

Given the circumstances, the 2021 Fringe was a success once again. We hosted some 35 online community gardening activities, garden/art installations, virtual walks, Zoom talks, food tasting events, across London and beyond. See a selection of last year’s stories here

There was excellent coverage in the national media – newspapers, magazines, radio and television. We also maintained our successful broadcast partnership with BBC Radio London (the Robert Elms show), which is to continue in 2022.

At this stage we are inviting individuals and organisations, first-timers and Fringe veterans, to contact us to discuss what they might like to do this year, to bring us back to our full live capacity again. Please get in touch with us via email (info@chelseafringe.com) if you would like to be involved and do forward this on to anyone else who you think might be interested.

The Chelsea Fringe is volunteer-run and unfunded, operating as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company [CIC].

The Chelsea Fringe is 11 years old! The festival went ahead virtually last year, in line with restrictions.  But now we are cautiously welcoming everyone back to join us in real life!

As ever we are inviting community gardeners, artists, activists and anyone with an interest in gardens, plants and outdoor space to get involved and to do something fun and positive.

We are encouraging creative gardeners to come up with quirky ideas in the true Fringe spirit, for example a workshop, art exhibition, or a garden-based community event. Walks, talks, singing and dancing also welcome. As long as it’s interesting and legal, and on the subject of gardens, flowers, veg-growing or landscape.

The Fringe is volunteer-run and not-for-profit, so please do go and check out our website or just email us direct with your idea at: info@chelseafringe.com

The Fringe is all about you and what you bring to the events – and there’s such delight in all of the pictures you send us.

We hope you had as much fun as we did.