This year’s Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival at Peterborough Theatre Guild has been cancelled

Organizers cite withdrawal of most of the festival's accepted artists for 'financial or personal reasons'

By kawarthaNOW -
Published
Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) co-founders during the original 2020 announcement of the world's first and only Indigenous fringe festival, before it was postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic. Pictured are Joeann Argue, assistant professor in Indigenous performance at Trent University, Lee Bolton, theatre coordinator of Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University, and Drew Hayden Taylor, the award-winning Indigenous playwright, author, columnist, and filmmaker who first proposed the idea of the festival in 2019. (Photo courtesy of NIFF)
Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) co-founders during the original 2020 announcement of the world's first and only Indigenous fringe festival, before it was postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic. Pictured are Joeann Argue, assistant professor in Indigenous performance at Trent University, Lee Bolton, theatre coordinator of Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University, and Drew Hayden Taylor, the award-winning Indigenous playwright, author, columnist, and filmmaker who first proposed the idea of the festival in 2019. (Photo courtesy of NIFF)

The Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) will not be taking place this year.

In a statement issued on Monday (March 23), the festival’s board of directors, artistic director, and general manager announced the decision to cancel the 2026 festival “after much thought and discussion.”

Considered the world’s first and only Indigenous fringe festival, the inaugural NIFF was first held in June 2021 at Trent University. It was originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but was postponed to the following year due to the pandemic.

Advertisement - content continues below

 

 

The origins of the festival began in 2019, when award-winning playwright, author, columnist, and filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor of Curve Lake First Nation took to Twitter (now X) to ask “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do a fringe festival?”

Professor Joeann Argue, who teaches Indigenous performance and storytelling courses as a Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies faculty member at Trent University, came across the tweet and replied that Trent University had space for a festival.

She then brought the idea to her colleague Lee Bolton, theatre coordinator of Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University, who had experience with fringe festivals, and a collective of artists then came together to turn the idea into reality.

Advertisement - content continues below

 

 

The festival continued at Trent University every June from 2022 until 2025, when it was moved to the Peterborough Theatre Guild. Applications for the 2026 festival, which was to take place from June 17 to 21, opened last October and were extended until February.

“Since before the pandemic, the organization has done all we can to support the work of Indigenous artists through our ‘small but mighty’ event,” reads the statement from NIFF. “This year, with three quarters of the artists accepted to the festival having to withdraw for financial or personal reasons, we have come to the conclusion that a fringe festival is not the best way for us to do that at this time.”

“We are deeply grateful to the elders, artists, audiences, supporters, and funders who made it possible to bring fantastic Indigenous performance to Peterborough/Nogojiwanong for five festivals, and for the ‘midnight tweet’ that sent us on this amazing ride.”

RECENT STORIESMORE FROM AUTHOR