GEORGE TOWN, Aug 9 — The Butterworth Fringe Festival (BFF) returns for the third year this weekend and again, visitors can expect to be entertained by street performances, “live” music, acrobatic shows, exhibitions and workshops.
Held in conjunction with George Town Festival 2017, BFF will be around the Jeti Lama area in old town Butterworth and start at 5pm on Saturday.
According to GTF director Joe Sidek, Butterworth is an exciting and raw canvas for BFF. “We’d like to develop the event into a people-centric, street festival in line with the Adelaide Fringe and Edinburgh Festival.
“With a population of 900,000, Butterworth is always in the shadow of the island which makes this the perfect event to showcase the town’s charm and potential,” he said about the festival that is fast becoming one of the main draws of the annual GTF.
The performances lined up at the main stage at the newly completed Rain Garden in Jeti Lama starts from 5.30pm this Saturday with the Penang Dhol Blasters, a group that will showcase their high intensity playing on traditional double-headed Punjabi drums called dhols. The group will also be performing on Sunday.
A Simple Space acrobatic showcase from Australia will also perform at the main stage on Saturday at 8.45pm.
Ombak-Ombak Art Studio’s Potehi group will present its Kisah Pulau Pinang using traditional hand puppets on both Saturday and Sunday.
Dolphin Creative is introducing exciting street acts such as Jack Flash, JP Koala, The Great Dave and The Chaplin Show during the weekend.
Jack Flash is a comedy stunt show that is a mix of knife juggling and skipping with a handstand finale while JP Koala is another comedy stunt show involving medieval axes and toy koalas.
The Great Dave is another juggling act; see him juggle and balance cups, saucers, and spoons while riding a unicycle. The Chaplin Show is as its name suggests; clown mime and musician Diego from Argentina portrays himself as Charlie Chaplin.
During the festival, a Roots Street Art Market by Lokalhouz Butterworth will be held throughout the day with over 20 vendors selling a variety of indie merchandise.
There will also be a 20-hour wall art competition where 12 artists will compete to complete their masterpiece on a 8 ft by 4 ft plywood.
For those who like learning new crafts, there are several workshops during the festival such as cartoon drawing, DIY kaleidoscope, shibori (traditional Japanese fabric dyeing technique) and doll painting.
BFF, supported by Think City, Seberang Perai Municipal Council and the National Department for Culture and Arts, is on August 12 and 13 from 5pm to 11.30pm. Admission is free. The full events list is at butterworthfringe.com.
