Nelson Fringe Festival
We’re an annual festival in Nelson Whakatū, New Zealand, giving a stage to performers, comedians, storytellers, dancers, musicians and more, for an hour at a time, and always at a cheap ticket price.
We embrace the full range of first-timers to seasoned touring gigsters, presenting around 50 shows in three venues across ten days.
Whether you’re onstage or in the audience, it’s about throwing yourself into a festival of ideas, shows, experiments, adventures and general fringy awesomeness.
Nelson Fringe: Itay Dom: Half-Baked Ideas
Saturday 15 March 2025
Itay Dom (as seen on Guy Mont-Spelling Bee and The Bachelorette New Zealand) brings his signature mix of laidback crowd work and observational humour to the Nelson Fringe in his Billy T Award-nominated show.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Captain Houndstooth
Between Thursday 13 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
Experience poetry redefined with visceral delivery and an outdated yet striking Houndstooth jacket. Delve into themes of rebellion, love and loss, and societal critique, enhanced by tailored music. This performance blends raw emotion and dynamic sound to create a powerful, immersive journey that resonates and transforms.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Up Late Cabaret
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
Join in the chaos that is the Up Late Cabaret. Featuring risqué moments, hilariously bad jokes and a smorgasbord of delectable performances.
Burlesque is R18 as it may contain implied nudity, naughty words and a whole lot of empowered entertainment!
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Tekau (10)
Between Friday 14 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
In 2024, Wellington-based spontaneous theatre troupe Best on Tap celebrated ten years of performing on stage together. This show takes audience-generated prompts of what they were doing ten years ago as inspiration for an improvised show, grounded in relationships inspired by the audience.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: THE KIDS MIGHT DIE (a tale told by an idiot)
Between Friday 14 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
A children's production of Macbeth is interrupted by the end of the world. The kids evacuate, leaving only their director behind. The show must go on…right? This comedic solo piece explores the paradox of live performance in a seemingly doomed world. As Jill attempts to save the show, it falls into an anxiety spiral on death and identity.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Would You Like Me More If I Was Less Like Me?
Between Friday 14 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
Ōtautahi pro-comic Dan Bain is starting to panic that he’s run out of interesting things to talk about, and that his lack of popularity is because he is essentially unlikeable. Can he fundamentally change who he is and become instantly popular in this hilarious hour of hyper-articulate overthinking? (Probably not.)
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: blip
Between Friday 14 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
blip is the brainchild of Dada and a motherboard.
Galvanising live looping, interactive projection, clowning, and psychedelic soundscapes into a revolutionary performance art dubbed Cyborg Sound Poetry, blip needs to cool off at the beach.
Gear up for a rejuvenating plunge into experiences of aphasia on an underwater adventure as blip transforms our voices to sing the body electric.
Warnings: Audience interaction, flashing lights, very loud noise, high pitched sounds
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Pommie Funny Fillies!
Between Friday 14 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
IWD Tour sees award-winning comedy thoroughbreds Sajeela Kershi and Suzy Bennett gallop into Nelson with their funtabulous show. These relatable women of a certain age (Preach Sista Tina Turner) are Satirical, Sardonic, Silly. Hilariously Covering Politics/Poppadoms/Pasties and more.
Seen/heard/written for TV/Radio (BBC, Comedy Central C4+) ★★★★★ (The Argus)
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Nilguen Yalay: When the Dragonfly Emerges
Between Sunday 9 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
Nilguen Yalay returns to Nelson Fringe with her newest storytelling performance. With courage and vulnerability, Nilguen will take you on a journey through her most personal experiences, revealing how her struggles and soul quests became her greatest gifts. Nilguen's warm, passionate and often humorous storytelling will leave everyone uplifted.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: FunnYouth
Saturday 15 March 2025
Come and see Nelson’s one and only youth improv troupe. FunnYouth will perform never-seen-before stories played out with the help of suggestions from the audience. Quick witted original plot lines and off-the-cuff funny improv games will have you and your whānau entertained and wanting more!
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Zine Making Workshop
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Saturday 15 March 2025
Hosted by Guerrilla Publishing.
Calling all rebels and creative types! Made famous by Riot Grrrl and other punk publications, mini magazines (zines) are a way to unleash your art/words in all their raw, authentic, #realnotperfect glory. Guided by poet Rowan Taigel, you'll produce your own one-of-a-kind zine, ready for copying and sharing with NZ and the world!
Elma Turner Library
Nelson Fringe: Zeelowsguys Kids Show
Saturday 15 March 2025
Come along for the ride as the Zeelows travel through time and space! Meet a family of colourful
alien characters full of adventure, together with their friend Chomper the Pony. Enter this brand-
new world brought to life through the magic of colour and sound.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Laser Kiwi – Good Time work in progress
Between Thursday 13 March 2025 and Friday 14 March 2025
Laser Kiwi aka the world’s only Surreal Sketch Circus are making a new show! Will it be done? Will it be good? Come along to find out. Their first two shows where good and won awards and stuff...so they have that going for them.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Accordion Ryan's Pop Bangers
Between Wednesday 12 March 2025 and Friday 14 March 2025
Covering artists from across the pop music spectrum, Accordion Ryan will sing and play your favourite songs like you've never heard them before! Fresh off an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent and a hit run at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, he is excited to bring his talents to Nelson.
Warnings: language, audience interaction, very loud noise
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Dance with Dementia
Between Wednesday 12 March 2025 and Friday 14 March 2025
The story of a woman who has lost her memory and the ability to take care of herself, living in a small room, her daily life, her desires, her inner voice, and finally her hope for redemption. This is a solo piece about fading memories, the echoes of solitude, and a life touched by dementia.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: The Magic Shop
Friday 14 March 2025
The Magic Shop is a brand-new interactive performance that invites you to explore what you want more of in life. But what are you willing to let go of? Come along and see what is on offer. You can’t buy, you can only barter. Join acclaimed sociodramatist Cissy Rock in this brand-new interactive and playful performance. Step into the shop and see what's on offer.
Please meet at The Refinery Artspace before the show.
Magenta Creative Space
Nelson Fringe: I Was a Teenage Racist
Between Wednesday 12 March 2025 and Thursday 13 March 2025
Oh Christ - it’s actually happening! Trigger Warning: this show contains racist language in the context of an anti-racist show. Comedian Simon Kingsley-Holmes admits to all the dumb sh*t he has done, said and thought over the years in an attempt to deal with his journey away from racist thinking. Is he an idiot for doing so? Yes.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Only Bones – Daniel Nodder
Between Wednesday 12 March 2025 and Thursday 13 March 2025
Explore the universe in this intimate and mesmerising physical comedy voyage. Watch a jelly-like performer as they pluck creatures from evolutionary history and push the boundaries of physics, all within a one square metre. From creation to destruction to re-creation, you’ll see limbs bend in ways you never thought possible, and you’ll never look at knees the same way again.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: The Uber-cool Musical
Between Tuesday 11 March 2025 and Thursday 13 March 2025
A one-man comedy, music show performed in a kitted out, parked, party van! Strap in for the ride of your life as we take a regular occurrence of driving in an Uber and blow open the private life, memories and miss-happenings of our driver. Carpool karaoke meets intense love story meets wild murder mystery.
This performance is in a van.
Warnings: language, audience interaction, flashing lights, smoke/haze, very loud noise, violence
Tom’s van in the Refinery ArtSpace Carpark
Nelson Fringe: My Life is Based on a True Story
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Thursday 13 March 2025
Families teach us how to behave or misbehave, when to agree or disagree, when to cry or not to. But most importantly, when to have a good laugh and take the piss. True stories are the funniest and Heather’s family have provided her with plenty of fodder. This is storytelling at its best from a Moth Story Slam Winner, USA.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: VOID – work in progress
Thursday 13 March 2025
Zane Jarvie has toured nationally, internationally and won things...none of which were for stand-up comedy, but at least you know he is good at something. He has been entertaining audiences since before he can remember, and wants nothing more than for everyone to get along.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: The Elephant in the Room
Between Tuesday 11 March 2025 and Thursday 13 March 2025
Got a tiny secret? Something that "happened on tour" that needs to "stay on tour"? Something that might change how your partner might see you? Come meet the elephant in Andy's room. It's wild. This play is a local story, inspired by actual events.
*Contains adult themes and traces of nuts. Supported by Creative Communities.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: 22 (Brooke’s Version)
Between Tuesday 11 March 2025 and Wednesday 12 March 2025
New York comedian/Moth Story SLAM Champ presents two shows!
New York Comedian/Moth StorySLAM Champ's New Year's Eve. Brooke campaigns to lead a better future in her (mental) pop-culture/Broadway musical. Sold-out Edinburgh Fringe ‘24, ‘23, Off-off Broadway. ★★★★The Skinny ★★★★TheatreWeekly ★★★★LondonTheatre1. Audience: “Smart comedy for smart people;” “A wild ride;” “Fast-paced, quick-witted;” “Among the best Fringe shows;” “Jam packed w/clever cultural references;” “Highly inspirational”
18+
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: A Year and a Day
Between Monday 10 March 2025 and Wednesday 12 March 2025
Nathan is cursed. Every time he falls asleep, his life skips a year and a day into the future. Leaving behind a botched heist, his wife and a jaded criminal gang, Nathan must learn how to save the ones he loves as he rapidly skips through time.
Refinery ArtSpace
Nelson Fringe: I’m Proud of You
Wednesday 12 March 2025
Kia ora kiddos! Come spend a night with your ole Dad. We'll share memories, chew the fat and if you're really good ya might even get a bed-time story.
See u there. lotsaluv, Dad.
This is a celebration of great kiwi dads and a balm for those whose relationships are a bit more complicated.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: The Brilliance of Broken Glass
Between Monday 10 March 2025 and Tuesday 11 March 2025
NY Comedian/MothStorySLAM Champion Brooke explores identity: award-winning storytelling, poetic narrative, wry comedy. Sold-out EdFringe’24, Off-Off Broadway, critical acclaim EdFringe’23: ★★★★ “Sharp comedic timing” TheSkinny; ★★★★ “Endearing wit, thoroughly worth seeing” TheatreWeekly; ★★★★ “Intriguing, heartfelt” LondonTheatre1. Audience: “Brilliant tour de force;” “First-class writing/delivery;” “Left inspired;” ”Intricately-woven, propelled w/lightspeed smarts;” ”Echoes beyond the hour”
18+
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: A Stand-up Show!
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Tuesday 11 March 2025
My 86-year-old mother asks why I can’t do something cleaner, like animal impressions. Fortunately for her, she lives in Florida, so she won’t have to see my show. It's rated 18+ (sorry Mom). Bring someone you'd like to see laugh, be offended, or scarred for life. You've been warned.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Passing Through
Between Monday 10 March 2025 and Tuesday 11 March 2025
A waiting room where we sit with a group of strangers. What are we doing here? Is life a school? And what are we learning? Do you get a Pass or a Fail, or just a certificate for participation? This new play is a light-hearted, thoughtful riff on Life, and After Life.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: What you didn't know about physics
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Tuesday 11 March 2025
What you didn't know you didn't know about physics .
A guided tour of the minefield that is quantum mechanics, led by Nelson's answer to the unasked question Frog McFrog himself. Expect diagrams on a whiteboard, a charming assistant, and to leave the venue later than when you arrived.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Songs and Chats (CANCELLED)
Tuesday 11 March 2025
Experience an evening filled with harmonious melodies, engaging conversations and rib-tickling humour. This unique performance will uplift your spirits, spark your curiosity and make you want to join in. It’s a soul-stirring delight that you won't want to miss! From Carly Pearl to Bic Runga and Adele, with a couple of Anna’s originals, you’ll be humming all the way home.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Rampage – the true story
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Monday 10 March 2025
Rampage – the true story of a drug fuelled adventure at Nelson Hospital .
When Naomi's medication caused a complete psychotic breakdown, and a wild night of adventure through Nelson Hospital commenced! A crazy tale of absurd delusions, extreme paranoia and ridiculous escape plans.
An unforgettable hospital escapade complete with an evil captor (AKA an orderly) that ultimately ends in tragedy...or did it?
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Midlife Crisis
Monday 10 March 2025
Hurtling towards her big 5-0, the whacky author of the Fairytale Fraud series is staring down her mortality by diving into her most outlandish challenge yet—Stand Up Comedy. Midlife Crisis is for anyone who needs a laugh at the inevitability of aging, because if you don’t laugh...you cry.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Lines & Lyrics
Monday 10 March 2025
Poems & Songs by Mark Raffills & Leigh Strange.
You know those days when you have to laugh or you'd cry? Leigh Strange and Mark Raffills wrote that stuff down, coloured the pages, screwed them up, lit matches and set the ashes to music. The singer of sad songs who longs to be funny, hangs on every oaked word of the wise poet and sings with ‘a voice that stops traffic’.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: The Extra
Between Sunday 9 March 2025 and Monday 10 March 2025
What happens when you combine three bizarre couples, a high school fair and an unexpected main character?
Chaos, that’s what!
This is a show for youth, written and performed by youth, that promises a well-meaning but unwanted knight, secret codes, queer characters, and ultimately a quest for love!
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Jessie and Other Stories
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Monday 10 March 2025
Mary Glaisyer is a Fringe favourite with her dry wit, gentle humour and thought-provoking stories. This time she’s joined by the musical artistry of violinist Juliet Ayre, and together they’ll serve up a delicious cocktail of words and music. "Mary grabbed our audience by the heart with her beautifully woven stories. An absolute breath of fresh air." Lyric Theatre, Granity
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: BOTTOM SURGERY
Between Friday 7 March 2025 and Sunday 9 March 2025
“So...can you have kids now?” Join emerging award-winning Wellington performer Lily Catastrophe in her glitter-soaked world of boys’ schools and girl failures as she explains the parts you didn’t want to know about The Surgery. This (mostly) one-woman show weaves burlesque and storytelling in a raucous evening of cabaret.
Warnings: language, nudity
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Cheese Wraps & Blueberries
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Sunday 9 March 2025
Charlotte knows the struggle is real - to meet expectations set by parenting books, experts, and even other mothers. This new show explores the disconnect between the idealised image of motherhood, and the messy, unpredictable, chaotic reality. If you saw Not Just a Mother at Fringe 2023, then don’t miss follow up – Nikkie Karki’s characters are funny and totally relatable!
Refinery ArtSpace
Nelson Fringe: Steiner and the Snake
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Sunday 9 March 2025
A tumultuous and darkly humorous one-person play about Rudolf Steiner, his troubling philosophy and the sh*t storm that ensues whenever his bizarre doctrines are challenged.
Side-stepping natural sciences, Steiner’s insights reflect the racism of his time, his German nationalism and the fertile imagination of an 'initiate' let loose on a world hungry for the esoteric.
Steiner and the Snake aims to give a voice to those under his spell and to those who struggle to extricate themselves. Join Robert Düssler for a fascinating deep dive into Austria’s best-known occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist and claimed clairvoyant.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Tell Tales Collective
Sunday 9 March 2025
Watch in wonder as five actors perform improvisations on stories drawn from the audience, alongside live music. Weaving threads from a diverse range of theatrical backgrounds hung on the architecture of Playback Theatre, the troupe are ready to cast themselves into the abyss of the unknown for your entertainment!
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Frankenstein Abridged
Between Saturday 8 March 2025 and Sunday 9 March 2025
The show must go on. Right? This is a fun and fast paced parody of the iconic story of Doctor Frankenstein. When the theatre company fails to make it to opening night, the backstage theatre crew take the reins and deliver their humorous take on the play.
Warning. Contains crochet.
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: Creating Character through Physical Theatre
Sunday 9 March 2025
Actor and director Martine Baanvinger will facilitate the process of creating characters for the stage through physical theatre in this dynamic and fun workshop. The focus is on body shape, gesture and movement to create strong comic and dramatic characters in a short period of time. All levels of experience and movement ability welcome.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Robert Haley – ELIXIR (CANCELLED)
Between Friday 7 March 2025 and Saturday 8 March 2025
Mentalist Robert Haley is back! This time the tables have turned. This time it's all about you. Stocked with a suitcase full of ELIXIRS he'll give audience members special abilities of their own. Be prepared to be extraordinary!
‘Refreshing, exciting and...maybe actually magic’ Theatreview
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Rubber Gloves: The Glad Rags Story
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Saturday 8 March 2025
Join the hilarious and retro-sexy Gladys and Beryl as they take a sweep down memory lane, reminiscing on their successful and oh-so extravagant lives. Warning: contains rubber gloves, costume chaos, brass-band-hilarity, and a dusting of ballet. Starring Trish Sullivan and Jennifer Currie.
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: For My Family, And Yours
Saturday 8 March 2025
Families are complicated, and relationships are hard, but let's share an evening of love and gratitude for the loved ones in our lives. Told through poetic storytelling and heartfelt music, you are invited to reminisce on your own experiences of family and relationships. Bring tissues.
Warnings: audience interaction, reference to suicide
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Spinster
Between Friday 7 March 2025 and Saturday 8 March 2025
Snap is one of Aotearoa's most prolific comedians, who has amassed a stack of awards and a bunch of critical acclaim, before gradually becoming known for his number of cats and likelihood of dying alone. Join Snap for a brand-new hour of superbly crafted gags, largely centred around his newfound status as a spinster.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: SPACE HOLE (CANCELLED)
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Friday 7 March 2025
Ever feel like your bad decisions have the power to rip apart the fabric of reality, creating a metaphysical tear in time and space? Musical comedian Troubadette is live from the Space Hole, wrestling with her life choices while singing about dismemberment, tentacles, and some guy’s d*ck.
Yaza Comedy Club
Nelson Fringe: Silly Skitts
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Friday 7 March 2025
Silly Skitts is a series of snapshots on the silliness of everyday life with the craziness of the world around us, exploring taboos about death, dating, sex and a foreigner’s view of NZ.
Franceska will perform a series of silly skits, with Geert Hermsen providing musical interludes on his accordion and mouthorgan. Angelika Barnes will be on hand as MC.
Warnings: R18
Refinery Artspace
Nelson Fringe: Can’t Hear Her Voice (CANCELLED)
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Friday 7 March 2025
After the death of his wife Dave puts his heart and soul into raising his only daughter. But what happens to him if something happens to her? This new play by Jim Risner (Only One Choice, 2022 Nominee for Best of Nelson Fringe) looks at the pressures and consequences of an intense relationship and what happens when someone acts before thinking. Supported by Creative Communities.
Warnings: Language, flashing lights, violence, sexual assault
Red Door Theatre
Nelson Fringe: The Girmit
Between Thursday 6 March 2025 and Friday 7 March 2025
This is the story of people who were taken from India to Fiji under the indentured labour system. Nadia uses objects to build soundscapes that blend electronic music, song and poetry. "…a superb electronic live show, with Freeman mixing and creating her own sound directly in front of the audience." The Post. After the show, stay for korero and questions with Nadia.
Warnings: human rights abuse
Red Door Theatre
