About the infringement Festival
The infringement Festival is an interdisciplinary, community-based event open to all critical artists.
To celebrate freedom of expression, the festival is designed as a genuine arts democracy and a critical response to an oppressive neo-liberal worldview. The festival aims to emphasize and nurture both critical practice in the arts, and artistic practice in activism.
The infringement welcomes a variety of performances and cultural resistance: theatre groups, performers, street activism, political theatre, musicians, radical performance, visual artists, films, marginalized arts, spoken-word, puppet shows, disadvantaged groups, and anyone that wants to infringe on corporate monoculture.
The infringement Festival began in Montreal in 2004 as an alternative to high registration fees, unethical sponsorship, and the lack of critical voices in the St-Ambroise™ Montreal Fringe Festival™. It has since become an international movement, spreading virally to Ottawa, Toronto, Regina, Buffalo, and most recently Bordeaux, France. As such, the infringement Festival has essentially returned to the Fringe’s DIY roots, abandoned by the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.
To avoid being co-opted, the infringement Festival follows a mandate that looks like this:
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It is free for all artists and activists to participate in the infringement Festival. The festival will never charge a registration fee and participants will keep 100% of their box office.
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The festival is open to all critical artists and will never discriminate, set entry criteria or censor.
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The festival is run as a non-hierarchical arts democracy.
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The festival will only accept ethical companies that pose no conflict of interest as sponsors, as the interests of the festival's participants come before those of the sponsors.
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The festival will encourage, although not be limited to, progressive acts that encourage discussion and oppose oppressive structures.
Join the infringement and reclaim your culture!
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