The Fringe starts for me tonight and I'm not going to the Hub, I'm going to the Owl and the Pussycat in Richmond.
Bushpig at the Owl and the Pussycat
The first stop of any Fringe festival is its Hub: the place where there are lots of venues, shows, bars and people. The Melbourne Fringe Hub is in and around the North Melbourne Town Hall. If you only have one or two nights to enjoy the festival, it's the place to go. And there's also plenty of free stuff on at The Hub if you're short of cash.
But there are lots of other venues and Fringe gems so often gleam in the most unexpected places.
It's not at all unexpected that The Owl and the Pussycat in Richmond have programmed a fascinating Fringe program. They have six shows running that include from Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe hits and new work.
Check out their program here and remember that the easiest way to get to them is to catch a train to Richmond station and it's a 30-second walk from the Swan St exit to their door.
Other venues include ridiculously gorgeous Butterfly Club in the city (remember that it moved from South Melbourne). Here's their Fringe program, which has shows like Famoucity by Lessons with Luis.
The Butterfly Club
I saw this during the comedy festival (review) and fell in mad platonic love with its brilliant atrociousness and love of cats. And, as I stressed to comedy fest shows, "If you want to be as good as Luis, Len and Luelin, you need to sing more songs about cats, write more stories about cats and make cat badges".
In case you can't find the Butterfly Club, Luis drew a map.
