Are you weird? Do you like things just a little….abnormal? If so, you won’t feel alone in Cincinnati during the 9^th annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival! From May 29 to June 9, artists and art lovers will converge on Over the Rhine for a 12 day long festival of all things avant garde, offbeat, or just plain out there. Inspired by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Cincinnati Fringe Festival provides an outlet for hundred of artists from all over the world to express their ideas. The festival provides activities for visiting artists to sooth and inspire creativity, including Yoga, acting workshops, and even youth outreach with FringeNext, where three groups of high schoolers will perform new shows.

At Fringe, you can see about every kind of theatre imaginable– as long as it’s not boring. From silly string and ghosts to men who cheat with blow up dolls, this festival has something for every level of weirdness. The 2012 Fringe Festival Shows are:

• A Hands on Guide to the Apocalypse
• American Badass in Cincy
• Breaking Rank!
• Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Anthropological Inquisitorial Probe
• Blown Up
• Bombus and Berryline, or The Bumblebee and the Hummingbird
• Dances for a Recession
• Delicious
• Don’t Cross the Streams: The Cease and Desist Musical
• Exodus
• Female Desires
• Kiss Kiss Missiles: A Retrospectacle
• Latitude
• Love Knots
• Nothing by Nic Balthazar
• On Her Pillow
• Otrimprove Public Workshop
• Grim and Fischer: A Deathly Comedy in Full Face mask
• Methtacular!
• Rodney Rumple’s Random Reality
• Radio Star
• Strung Out Puppet Cabaret
• Tainted Love: A Zombie- Human Love Story
• Project Activate
• Quake: A Closet Love Story
• Storms Beneath Her Skin
• Strange Dreamz
• The Doppelganger Cometh and Overtaketh
• The Mistakes Madeline Made
• Third Quarter Moon: A Complex Derivative Love Story
• Trapped In A Box
• You Will Have 25 Minutes to Complete this Essay
• The Screw You Revue
• The Sweet, Burning Yonder
• TrueFringe
• Where is my Mind?

Also, don’t miss the film Fringe Documented on June 9^th at 8:30 p.m. at the Art Academy, located at 1212 Jackson Street.

If this isn’t enough variety for you. Check out the 22 ½ Play Project, where over 20 different groups will perform brand new short works on June 5, beginning at 10:30 p.m.

For you other kinds of weirdos out there, don’t worry if theater is not your thing! There are endless ways to get into the unorthodox of Cincinnati throughout the festival. Other fun things to do include Game Night, An Evening with Tom Waits, Fringe-A-Oke, Segway Night, Open Skate, Fringe Olympics, and my favorite, Fringe Prom!

Most events at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival are within walking distance from each other and you can find maps and discounts in the Festival Guide.

Individual show tickets are $12 but multi show passes can be purchased through the festival’s website  and the artists receive 50% of each ticket!

Lastly, do not be late. Latecomers will not be let in.

Fringe is for people who understand and appreciate what weird is, like me and most of you reading this. Help make Cincinnati weird!