The Louisville Fringe Festival, dedicated to off-the-wall, irreverent, and non-traditional theater and performing arts, is now in the thick of its fifth annual festival. Over the past five years, the event has grown from a group of enthusiastic but inexperienced dreamers into an essential part of Louisville’s independent creative scene. The festival defines theatre as “ANYTHING you do with live people for live people,” this year that includes a wide range of performing disciplines and events, from new original plays by Black Sheep Theatre, The Derby City Playwrights, and a *plethora* of solo performance, to Camera Lucida’s collage film assembled from silent movies of the 1920's with live cello accompaniment. In between you can find comedy, spoken word, and a mental health diagnosis human centipede sock puppet.  We caught some of the first weekend, and brought you pictures of “the theatrical pressure cooker” SHOTZ!; the hilarious and moving drag theatre performance from Drag Daddy Productions Anita D0-Over; performance artist Hannah Dewitt’s Stand Up Comedy About My Trauma; patrons attacking Yoko Molotov’s interactive art installation, and the audiences having a blast. Week two of the festival runs every night until Saturday, Aug. 26th. It includes more original theatre, drag, burlesque, belly dancing, circus pole performance, an Unhinged Yard Sale, and a professional (arm) wrestling league populated by Shakespeare’s most lovable (and hateable) characters. —Allie Fireel

All photos by GOSH! Studios