The 31st annual Fringe Festival will see many changes. Nutrien is no longer the title sponsor so the name becomes the Saskatoon Fringe Festival presented by 25th Street Theatre, but the biggest change for festival goers will be the location of the outdoor events.

Executive Director, Anita Smith, says everything that used to happen on Broadway Avenue while it was closed off, will now happen in the park behind Ecole Victoria School. That means Broadway will remain open. She says the decision was made to make it more of a true festival atmosphere and so they can be more creative in the setup. The Fringe Festival is July 30th to August 8th.

The Executive Director of the Broadway Business Improvement District, DeeAnn Mercier, is looking forward to seeing this new version of the festival unfold. When asked about whether businesses on Broadway would have a sidewalk sale while the festival is on, Mercier says they never had an official event at that time. Their annual sidewalk sale is during the Broadway Street Fair in September.

Not closing Broadway Avenue has nothing to do with Bus Rapid Transit in terms of immediately pending changes with the onset of BRT. Construction on the whole BRT project isn’t slated to start until 2022, to be completed in 2025. As well, while the goal is to have a bus every 8 minutes on Broadway, there won’t be a separate bus lane on Broadway when the project commences.