Philly Fringe Fest is the biggest it’s ever been. Now FringeArts will offer year-round programming in 2026.

Philadelphia’s FringeArts will return to offering seasonal programming, in addition to its monthlong Fringe Festival, beginning with a Winter-Spring 2026 season, the organization announced this week.

The legendary festival, known for experimental and boundary-pushing theater, previously offered year-round programming before the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. In recent years, it has seen record-breaking audience growth, prompting producing director Nell Bang-Jensen to expand beyond the month of September.

“I’m really proud to say [Fringe Festival 2025] was actually, numbers-wise, our most successful festival ever, which just feels like a light shining, in terms of arts organizations having a win right now,” said Bang-Jensen, who took the helm last year after serving as Theatre Horizon’s artistic director. “It’s an experience that can’t be replicated on a screen, and an experience that celebrates Philly, and I think people are really here for that.”

The Philly Fringe is one of the largest festivals of its kind in the country. Based on the number of participating venues across the city, Bang-Jensen said, Philly Fringe ranks first ahead of other notable festivals in Rochester, N.Y., and Minneapolis.

The 2025 Fringe Festival was the largest ever produced in its 29-year history with 353 shows. They sold more than 35,000 tickets during the month of September, which was a record high, and saw a 17% increase in unique ticket buyers from last year, which “means it’s not just the same people buying more tickets,” said Bang-Jensen.

She added that they have seen success in reaching younger audiences this year as well, with more than half of the audience composed of Millennials and Gen Z for the first time.

For the Winter-Spring 2026 season, FringeArts will present four productions from local and international artists at its Old City venue, along with a monthly series of Scratch Nights that invite artists to present works in progress.

Jenn Kidwell, the Obie Award-winning cowriter behind The Underground Railroad Game, will stage the Philadelphia premiere of her new work, we come to collect: a flirtation with capitalism (Jan. 22-24), with ASL artist Brandon Kazen-Maddox. It’s an irreverent exploration of “the pigsty of American consumerism.”

Frequent Fringe artist Lee Minora will bring back her solo show, Baby Everything (Feb. 26-28), for another run of the interactive performance that follows a protagonist who doomscrolls through her anxieties about the state of the world. Minora “challenges us to see ourselves as others do, no matter how endearing or insufferable,” wrote Julie Zeglen in the Inquirer’s roundup of the best shows of Fringe Fest 2025.

Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda is globally renowned for combining choreography and dynamic digital staging. He’s presenting two shows on a U.S. tour as a double billing: Moving State 1 and the solo performance, assimilating (March 14-15).

Lastly, FringeArts will stage Girl Dolls: An American Musical (May 8-17) from Philadelphia artists Jackie Soro and Pax Ressler, who’ve teamed up with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret for a production billed as “part tea party, part identity crisis.” They ask, “What does your favorite doll reveal about your childhood trauma?”

In addition to year-round programming, FringeArts will launch an artist-in-residency program for fostering original works. The Albert M. Greenfield Residency at FringeArts — funded by the local foundation of the same name — will invite three individuals or artist groups to develop new theatrical productions. The inaugural 2026 recipients will be selected by a panel of Philadelphia creatives.

Bang-Jensen said she’s grateful that Philly audiences have shown up for the “city of makers” every year and she hopes to continue expanding FringeArts’ reach.

“As many arts organizations are actually feeling pressure in 2025 just based on the economic environment and the political environment to do work that’s a little more mainstream, we have this wide-open field to do more for people who like things off the beaten path,” said Bang-Jensen.

Tickets for FringeArts’ Winter-Spring 2026 season go on sale to FringeArts members on Dec. 10 and the public on Dec. 12 at fringearts.com.