It All Started With Mud, Mayhem, and a Monster Puppet: Ingrid Hansen on the Power of Fringe
Fringe is all the art forms. It’s the space to experiment and stretch.
In 2007, Ingrid Hansen leapt into her first Fringe Festival – quite literally – dancing through the mud in Victoria. The performance was wild, physical, and gloriously unpredictable.
It was also the beginning of something much bigger: a lifelong love affair with creating bold, impossible art and sharing it with fearless Audiences.
By the time Ingrid brought her work to the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival in 2012, she was hooked.
“I remember being a little overwhelmed by how large it was,” she laughs. “But I loved the Audiences – the scavenger hunt vibe of people going to see as many shows as possible.”
That sense of discovery, joy, and creative chaos became the heartbeat of her career.
Photo by Nanc Price (2022)
Since that first muddy dance, Ingrid has become one of Canada’s most dynamic performers – a professional puppeteer, voice actor, director, performer, and choreographer whose work spans some of the world’s biggest stages and screens.
She’s brought monsters and misfits to life for The Jim Henson Company’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, Sesame Workshop’s Emmy nominated Helpsters on Apple TV+, APTN’s Tiga Talk, and Treehouse TV’s Miss Persona (where she even got to direct a music video with Canadian TV legend Fred Penner!). Her own original shows, created with SNAFU Dance Theatre, have toured internationally to Mexico, Korea, France, Belgium, and New York’s Lincoln Center.
But it all started with Fringe.
Fringe Artist
“I created my first-ever shows for Fringe,” Ingrid says. “By now I’ve co-created more than 12 Fringe shows – all unique – and some of the most recent shows have gone on to tour all over the world.”
The Fringe Festival movement is built on the simple, radical idea that art is for everyone, and anyone can be an Artist.
“Fringe is where I’ve met some of my best collaborators and dearest friends,” she continues. “Fringe Festivals bring together people who want to create and don’t want to wait for anyone else to give them permission to share what they’ve got with an Audience. It’s a crucial place for growing and experimenting as an Artist.”
That sense of fearless creation is what makes Edmonton Fringe so electric. Every August, more than a thousand Artists take to stages across the city with bold, wild, sometimes downright wacky work. Shows that make us laugh, cry, and engage with the world around us. It’s a space for Artists to take creative risks.
And it’s only possible because Audiences and Donors like you sustain it.
Photo by Shelby Antel, Epidermis Circus (2024)
“Without Fringe, we risk becoming entirely commercial – like a talent show – or something only the elite can afford,” says Ingrid. “I hope if Festivals like Edmonton Fringe didn’t exist, we’d riot. Fringe is all the art forms. It’s the space to experiment and stretch.”
She’s right. Your support keeps Edmonton Fringe accessible, affordable, and Artist-powered. It ensures the next generation of creators can take those first wild, muddy steps onto a stage, and, like Ingrid, leap into a global career.
When you Sustain Fringe, you’re not just donating to a Festival. You’re investing in Edmonton’s creative future. You’re keeping the doors open for the next great storyteller, puppeteer, clown, dancer, dreamer.
“When you support Fringe, you’re investing local,” says Ingrid.
Fringe Artist
Become a Monthly Donor before December 31, 2025 and you’ll unlock exclusive early access to tickets for the 2026 Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. Because when you support the art, you should be first in line to experience it.
Make your year-end gift today to support Artists like Ingrid and receive your 2025 charitable tax receipt.
Your donation helps Sustain Fringe now – for Ingrid, and for every Artist dreaming up their next impossible idea.
Keep up to date with Ingrid at snafudance.com, @snafudance, & @iamingridhansen
PS: Please give today – your support provides stages for Fringe Artists to share their stories and create authentic, affordable, and extraordinary experiences for Audiences.
Inspire Creative Chaos
Fringe Theatre is a charitable arts organization built on duct tape and dreams. If every person who bought a ticket to the Fringe Festival this August donated just $5 a month, every month, Fringe Theatre would become immediately sustainable.
