If you missed the Elgin Fringe Festival last fall, here’s chance to get a small taste of what it’s all about.
The 7th annual Winter Mini Fringe, presented by Side Street Studio Arts and the Elgin Fringe Festival, will be held from 1 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Side Street Studio Arts in downtown Elgin.
It’s a one-day event designed to capture the creativity, artistry and purpose of the Fringe Festival on a much smaller scale, said Nick Mataragas, Elgin Fringe Festival’s artistic director.
When they first started doing a Mini Fringe, the event’s organizers hand-picked shows they liked from Fringe Fest and wanted to see again.
“It’s evolved over the years into us giving opportunities to shows that stood out to us in the lottery that weren’t selected,” Mataragas said. “They’re shows we wanted to be in the main festival but that just didn’t get drawn during the lottery.
“We also added a potluck element last year, which was really fun, so we’re continuing it this year. And this year for the first time, we’re partnering with the Green Bay Fringe. We’re having one of their artists come down and perform at the Mini Fringe. Those are the big things that have changed over the years.”
People are encouraged to bring food for a community potluck that artists and audiences alike can share and enjoy throughout the afternoon, he said.
“It adds that kind of Midwest family vibe,” he said.
The Winter Mini Fringe kicks off with a visual art show featuring Adam Grewenig, the 2026 Elgin Fringe poster artist, and works by previous Elgin Fringe poster artists in the Side Street Studio Gallery.
“It’s a retrospective of artists who have designed posters for the Fringe,” Mataragas said.
The first show at 4 p.m. is called “Ozark Phantasmagoria,” by storyteller Ursa Miles, an original, one-woman performance about cryptids in the Ozarks in the 1930s. At 5:30 p.m. is “The Aisle Play” by Sword and Ink Theater, a dark, post-apocalyptic comedy that is more of a traditional theater piece, Mataragas said.
At 7 p.m. is “Bad Stories for Bad Children” by Cardboard Theatre of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a series of short stories told through a puppet show.
The Closed Captions Spanglish Stand-Up Comedy Show closes out the event at 8:30 p.m. It is hosted by Jose Alfredo and consists of four Chicagoland comics telling jokes mostly in English.
Tickets cost $15 for one show and $40 for all four.
The response has been positive for Mini Fringe, Mataragas said.
“Usually, there’s a pretty good turnout. It’s a pretty fun time. It’s a nice mix — we get a lot of our Fringe regulars coming in (saying) it’s good to have a nice Fringe moment between the main festivals,” he said. “We also get new people in seeing Fringe shows for the first time. It’s definitely a good gateway into the big festival because it’s not overwhelming. It’s only four shows
The shows are his favorite part of the Fringe Festivals, he said.
“I’m a sucker for seeing something different or weird or moving,” he said. “And you get that. The nice thing about the Mini Fringe is we don’t do four of the same shows. Every show is uniquely different than the other shows. I get a chance to see that and get those moments from each of those things in their own way and that’s pretty cool.”
Submissions for the 2026 Fringe Festival in September open on Feb. 1 and close March 1, he said. Entries are picked in April via lottery, with categories including local, touring, equity, first-time Fringe acts and Spanish entries.
The schedule doesn’t allow for much time off, Mataragas said.
“As soon as the festival ends, we start planning this and next year’s festival,” he said. “It is a lot of work but luckily there are enough of us to get the job done. It’s a lot, but it’s also worth it. It always feels so rewarding to see what happens because of all the work that we do.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
