This weekend Athens hosted its first Fringe Festival. The festival spanned October 22-25 and was held at some of Athens’ prominent bars.

Fringe is a niche market of art that combines theater, dance, puppetry, spoken word, and music. Atlanta’s fourth fringe festival in the spring of 2015 inspired Athens locals to host their own.

The founders Megan Dunn, Marty Crank, and Mux Blank have planned this event since November 2014, but they have wanted to host this event since 2010.

Athens Fringe Festival hosted artists such as: Electrophoria, Daniel Guyton and more. Headlining bands brought festival go-ers to venues such as Live Wire and the Flicker Theater.

Large Fringe groups such as Daniel Guyton‘s Prison Monologues and BadAss Storytelling Quartet brought Fringe culture to Athens because of their clout within the Fringe community. Both groups have participated in the Atlanta Fringe Festival in past years.

Some of the different kinds of performances that were at the Athens Fringe Festival were comedy shows, music, and improve routines from groups like  UGA’s Improv Athens and Comic Strip Comedy Show.

Next year the founders hope to be able to make the financial entry lower or even nonexistent.

“If we make more money, we can provide some scholarships for artists that can’t afford their production fees for next year,” said Marty Crank. “If we can make enough money with our sources. Maybe we can completely wave production fees next year. That would be ideal, so that artists can just come in with their ideas and hard work. That way they wouldn’t have to put any money down.”

The next Fringe Festival according to the United States Association of Fringe will be in Baltimore, Maryland for the Charm City Fringe Festival on November 8-15.