Now in its 14th year, the San Diego International Fringe Festival is taking its act across the border.
In addition to its 16 venues locally, the festival’s binational Baja California Pilot Program will present performances in both Ensenada and Rosarito. During the Baja Fringe organized by Barbara Velasco, events will be held at the Gertrude Pearlman Theatre in the Punta Banda area of Ensenada, at Ensenada’s Rustic Table restaurant and at CEART Playas de Rosarito.
Kevin Charles Patterson, founder and CEO of the San Diego International Fringe Festival, has primarily called Ensenada home for the past three years and foresaw the expansion of the festival across the border.
“I’m in an expat community that is home to a 100-seat theater (the Pearlman), which is the perfect size for the Fringe, and I’m surrounded by all these people who have homes that can host artists,” he said. “A bunch of them have casitas, so some of the artists are going to have their own house at the beach. For artists visiting, that alone is a cool little feature.”
But there’s more for Fringe performers, who come to this cross-border region from all over the world, than a place at the beach.
Japanese actor-comedian Gumbo will perform her solo show “Re:Re:Reincarnation,” about a woman reincarnated across three lives, at the 2026 San Diego International Fringe Festival.” (Gumbo)
“One of the big rationales behind this (Baja) initiative,” Patterson said, “is to use this for the artist’s advantage. In addition to this perk of being at the beach, they’ll be able to add a second country to their trip and hopefully utilize that to help the portfolio of the production they’ve created and to help their own resumes.
“It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to drop this into their lap. It’s (the first Baja Fringe) small this time around, but moving forward it could end up being great.”
Besides the programming into Baja, Patterson is excited about San Diego hosting the biannual World Fringe Congress (May 19-24) in which Fringe Festival delegates (producers, directors, etc.) from around the globe meet for networking, brainstorming and discussions about the growth and future of these festivals that began in Edinburgh in 1947.
“There’s no way to articulate how impactful that is,” he said.
As for the San Diego Fringe, which opens Thursday, May 14 and runs through May 24, 60 productions featuring about 100 artists are scheduled. Patterson, citing “funkiness that we’ve never run into before,” said that “difficulties with visas and the current political climate” have impacted bringing some performers to town.
Most of the San Diego venues will be familiar to Fringe-goers from previous years, including the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre and the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, The Light Box and Mockingbird Improv in Liberty Station, and the New Destiny and No Limits spaces in Lincoln Park.
Mary Kennedy presents her dark comedy “Hail Mary, None of the Grace,” about confronting her Catholic faith as she lays her mother to rest, at the 2026 San Diego International Fringe Festival. (Mary Kennedy)
Among the new venues are those housed in San Diego State University’s Theatre District: the SDSU MainStage, Prebys Theater and the Experimental Theater.
“It’s magical this year,” Patterson said, “that San Diego State contacted us and asked us to bring their theater district to life.”
This year as every year, the goal of the San Diego Fringe, he said, is to help performing artists get to “the next level” and of course to entertain and enlighten patrons.
“I love seeing what the artists come up with,” he said. “I love the adventure of going to see something that was way off your radar, and you go ‘This was one of the best things I’ve ever seen.’”
Highlights this year include winners of the 2026 International Tour Ready Awards, artists who won Fringe Festival honors in other nations or cities who are bringing their shows to San Diego.
Australian drag queen Dean Misdale brings her “Life’s a Drag” show to the 2026 San Diego International Fringe Festival. (Dean Misdale)
Among them is Proud Entertainment Group’s Dean Misdale from Perth, Australia, and the “Life’s A Drag” show (six performances at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre); from Sydney, Morgan Palmer’s “My Precious! The Cabaret” (five performances at SDSU’s Experimental Theater); New Zealand comedian Marshall Lorenzo’s “Serving Can’t” (one performance at the Pearlman in Ensenada and six at SDSU’s MainStage Theater); and also from New Zealand an encore presentation of Cam Poter’s “Just To Be Close To You” (three performances at SDSU’s Prebys Theater).
In addition, San Diego-based Vietnamese artist Linh Tran is debuting her one-woman show “Where the Heart Belongs” (five performances at the Light Box Theater); Ramona resident and storyteller Emily Stamets is world-premiering her “Flower. Fruit. Seed.” at the School for Creative Careers near Old Town (four performances); and Byron Ladue, Kent Brisby and Kat Fitzpatrick bring their new musical show “This Guitar Kills Fascists – A History of Folk and Protest Songs” to the outdoor Pan’s Garden space on 21st Street (five performances).
To help Fringe festival-goers determine what shows best suit their taste, a free Fringe fest preview event will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre in Balboa Park. Fest acts will get 2 minutes each to perform an excerpt from, or description of, their show.
For an up-to-date guide to festival performances, dates, times and venues, go to sdfringe.org/events.
14th San Diego International Fringe Festival
When: Opens Tuesday, May 12, and runs through May 24
Where: Various venues in San Diego, at SDSU and in Baja
Tickets: $10-$15 for individual shows; Fringe tags $7
Online: sdfringe.org