Mumbai, India, Feb 18: After nearly eight decades of shaping global performance culture, the Fringe is finally coming to India. What began in 1947 as a rebellious act on the margins of the Edinburgh International Festival has grown into the world’s largest open-access arts movement, spanning more than 300 festivals, including Edinburgh, Prague and Adelaide. It has launched careers, challenged conventions and redefined what live performance can look like. This March, that spirit lands in Mumbai for the very first time.
The Mumbai Fringe Festival will make its India debut from 10–15 March 2026, opening at the iconic Tata Theatre, NCPA before unfolding across Bandra’s creative circuit including Khar Comedy Club, 3 Art House and indifferent @ Gharonda. Over six days and nearly 60 performances, the festival will transform the neighbourhood into a dynamic cultural map where audiences move between venues, discover new voices and experience comedy, theatre, poetry, storytelling and experimental work in its most immediate form.
This is not a single-stage spectacle. It is a city in motion. The India edition launches with a powerful lineup of leading Indian voices alongside internationally celebrated productions. The festival features artists such as Rohan Joshi, Kanan Gill, Varun Grover, Aakash Gupta, Priya Malik, Amandeep Khayal, Urooj Ashfaq and Amit Tandon, alongside acclaimed global works including Nigel Miles Thomas’s award-winning solo performance Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, a striking solo adaptation of Macbeth presented by UK-based theatre company The Shakespeare Edit, and David Hoskin’s Haunted House, a genre-blending mix of mime, comedy and storytelling. True to the Fringe ethos, the programme is intimate, inventive and unafraid to take creative risks.
Tickets are live on BookMyShow, with multiple shows already sold out, signalling early demand and unmistakable momentum. The Mumbai Fringe Festival is co-founded by Steve Gove and Simar Singh, united by a shared belief that India is ready for the Fringe format.
Speaking about bringing the global movement to India, Steve Gove, Founder and Director, Prague Fringe that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, shared their excitement around this long-awaited debut: “Bringing Fringe to Mumbai has been a long-held dream. Cities around the world have embraced this model and watched it reshape their creative landscapes. Mumbai has the energy, the appetite and the talent to make this extraordinary. We are proud to open this chapter here.”
Highlighting the importance of creative independence, Simar Singh, Founder of UnErase Poetry, added, “The Fringe model gives artists complete freedom. It creates space for new voices and unexpected ideas to meet audiences directly. Mumbai deserves a platform like this. This is not just a festival for the city, it is a platform for artists across India to think bigger.”
Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and one of the key custodians of the world’s largest performing arts festival, said, “Born in Scotland nearly 80 years ago, the Fringe has always stood for joy, openness and giving everyone a platform with minimal gatekeeping. Over the years, we have proudly welcomed many outstanding Indian artists to the Edinburgh Fringe, and that tradition continues. We are delighted to see the Mumbai Fringe carry this same spirit forward, creating new opportunities and joy for audiences in India. We wish the Mumbai Fringe every success and look forward to supporting its journey ahead.”
Designed as a discovery-led experience rather than a large-scale spectacle, Mumbai Fringe Festival places audiences in close proximity to artists and ideas, creating moments that feel immediate, personal and electric. More than an addition to the cultural calendar, Mumbai Fringe Festival marks a defining new chapter in the city’s live arts landscape, positioning Mumbai within a global ecosystem of Fringe Festivals and offering Indian audiences a rare opportunity to experience a format that has shaped contemporary performance around the world.
For a country with one of the richest artistic traditions in the world, the arrival of the Fringe is both overdue and momentous. The movement that began on the margins now steps onto an Indian stage. And it begins in Mumbai.