New name, new home for Philly Live Arts Festival
After 17 years, a popular Philadelphia theater festival has its own home.
FringeArts, formerly the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, is renovating a red-brick Victorian building from 1903.The 10,000-square-foot building faces the Delaware River waterfront near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
It will have a 240-seat theater, a 125-seat bar and restaurant and multipurpose studio space that will be open year-round.
For a century, the building was a pump house that provided high-pressure water for fighting fires.
Fringe organizers said Monday the $7 million dollar facility is slated to open in September, in conjunction with the popular two-week theater festival. The state provided $1 million for the project and the remainder is coming from grants and donations.
Gov. Ed Rendell said the Fringe helped bring Philadelphia’s downtown back to life when it began 17 years ago.
WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.