The world comes to Malá Strana: Prague Fringe Festival marks 25 years

“Jump in at the deep end. Don’t be shy. Take risks.”

That’s the advice, coming straight from the heart, that founder Steve Gove gave us when we asked him how to best enjoy the Prague Fringe Festival.

Now a staple of Prague’s cultural life that caters to audiences from all around the world, the Prague Fringe Festival has come a long way since it first started in 2002.

But “from the moment the idea started, it was never going to have a chance to go away,” Steve explained at the time. “It was always there, I was always thinking about it, always wondering how I could get things going.”

In its first year, performances attracted 400-odd spectators. Today, thousands of visitors come to attend the dozens of live shows – from drama and comedy to dance, storytelling and even magic – taking place in lesser-known, cozier and more intimate stages of Prague’s Malá Strana district.

“Fringe has a strong community,” Steve tells us. “We have people who travel from across the globe to attend and artists who often come back again and again.”

The venues are small, and the community active and generous.

“Often, you might get chatting to someone you sat next to and realize that they’re performing in another theater later than same day,” Steve says, clearly anticipating with excitement next week’s kickoff.

Inspired by the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, one of the largest arts festivals in the world, Prague Fringe creates a space and an opportunity for both artists and audiences from all around the world to mix and mingle in a shared love of performance arts.

With both regular performers and new faces, the 2026 edition will see artists from the United States, Australia, Brazil, Scotland naturally and many more countries converge on Prague for a week full of drama (the good kind), laughter and entertainment – in dozens of intermingling accents that speak to the universal power of the theater stage.

As Steve explains, the program is carefully curated from hundreds of applications and peppered with award-winning shows and picks from other festivals he visited throughout the year.

A special focus will be given this year to Indian artists and performers from Taiwan. For Steve, “making it happen has a great sense of achievement."

Even just a quick glance at the program shows that there’s a little something for everyone. Thanks to cheap tickets and short running times (about one hour, sometimes less), “the risk factor is limited,” Steven points out, allowing spectators to experiment with genre, style and venue.

For his part, he tells us he’s particularly excited about the show Scotland! symbolizing the origins of Fringe in Edinburgh, by clown troupe The Latebloomers.

“They first performed their show at Prague Fringe in 2008 and then went on to tour the world to sold-out audiences. We’re excited to have them back in our anniversary year.”