The artist lottery process for the 2025 instalment of Peterborough’s Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) is now underway.
From Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island to Orlando in Florida, fringe festivals across North America have started accepting applications for their 2025 artist lotteries, and NIFF is currently welcoming proposals for Peterborough’s annual showcase of Indigenous arts.
“Our hopes for this year’s lottery are that we once again get an exciting mix of art forms — we’ve had music and theatre and burlesque and puppets and film — maybe this is our year for dance, or who knows what else,” NIFF general manager Lee Bolton told kawarthaNOW.
“A big part of this is the artist lottery, where festival artists are chosen randomly,” Bolton said in a media release.
An artist lottery is the process through which performers are chosen for festivals that are part of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), which also includes festivals in the United States. CAFF members are committed to providing production opportunities for any artist that wants to perform, without censorship or curation.
Individual Indigenous artists and performance companies that are at least 50 per cent Indigenous are invited to apply for NIFF’s 2025 lottery. The application process is simple and is open until February 10, 2025, Bolton noted.
All types of performances are welcome, including dance, theatre, music, film, comedy, and more.
Traditional and contemporary artists are encouraged to apply, and NIFF has no application fee.
“The best thing that could happen is that we get new and repeat local and regional Indigenous artists to join us in our new home,” Bolton said.
NIFF announced earlier this year that it was on the move. Following four years at Trent University’s Peterborough campus, NIFF will be held in June 2025 at the Peterborough Theatre Guild, located at 364 Rogers St. in East City. A former church now known as the Guild Hall, the building has played host to a wide variety of performances since 1965.
For more information and to access the application form, visit NIFF’s website at www.indigenousfringefest.ca.
A full schedule for the festival — which is slated for June 19 to 22, 2025 — including additional special events, family activities, and vendors, will be available in April and ticket sales will start in May.
