Melbourne Fringe Festival Goes Into Uncommon Places in 2014 Program

The 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival program has launched (gorilla in tow), and it's a predictably bursting-at-the-seams feast of live theatre, music, comedy, dance, film and art that will make for three-or-so weeks of decidedly unabashed fun. Now in its 32nd year, the Fringe is sticking to its tried-and-tested mix of emerging artists and more seasoned acts, but building on the general themes of coming-togetherness and seeing cool stuff, the festival is also launching a brand new series of site-specific works called Uncommon Places.

Pairing ten artists with ten not usually arty spaces, the idea is to explore the theme of "third places" — places that aren't work or home but where you do that good old-fashioned socialising stuff, where people meet and discuss art and politics, where creative ideas are born and civic engagement is fostered. In other words, places that aren't really uncommon at all, but maybe just places you wouldn't expect to travel to for an arts festival. Nice.

The program has the artists talking to the people who usually use the spaces, and telling their stories through installation. Filmmaker and human rights' advocate Emily Dalkin will take over the City Baths, investigating their social history way back to pre-colonial times, when the site was a local watering hole, while designer Danny Pettingill will bring his exploration of light in space and architecture to Pellegrini's Espresso Bar.

Other festival drawcards include the dine-while-you-watch Fringe Film program, now in its second year, which showcases emerging digital artists doing boundary-crossing things with screens; Fringe Furniture, for design nerds; and the mini festival-within-a-festival for the north side at Northcote Town Hall, presented by Speakeasy. If you're an emerging artist dealing in the, erm, less prudish side of art-making, check out FECK:ART — a participatory exhibition of "socially responsible erotica" for work the curators are kinda hoping will need a content warning.

And back again, of course, is the perennial Festival Hub at North Melbourne Town Hall, with three different bars in which to sit around and organise your festival shenanigans. It also boasts a continually revolving program of more than 60 events including a series of shows by lady comedians, the high-energy late-night Fringe Club, and Flash!, a showcase of dance, music, art and comedy from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

All in all, there should probably be a veto on ever saying, hearing or thinking the words "I'm bored" for the duration of the festival, which runs, by the way, from September 17 to October 5. See the Fringe Festival website for the full program, tickets, all that good stuff.