Buxton Fringe Announces Awards for 2024

Buxton Festival Fringe held its eagerly-awaited Awards Ceremony in The Serpentine Community Garden’s polytunnel on Sunday July 21st with outgoing Fringe Chair Stephen Walker presenting the event for the final time.

Stephen was full of praise for the Fringe’s 190-plus entrants, noting that “genuine quality across the board” had made for long discussions among the judges. After five eventful years as Chair, he commented: “All the thank yous I make today are five-fold for all the support I have had during my term”. He went on to acknowledge the Fringe committee, the awards’ judges, reviewers, Fringe desk staff, Fringe venues, Fringe Friends, financial backer High Peak Borough Council, Morrisons, Parkwood Leisure, Lomas Distribution, local media and many more supporters in the town including the Serpentine Community Garden for hosting the ceremony.

Among the local acts with reasons to celebrate were award-winners Corinne Coward and Discover Buxton Tours for Sex and Sensibility (Street Theatre) and Sam Pollard representing Burbage Band (Music – Large Ensemble). Strajanka Productions also gave out its own monologue award to Whaley Bridge writer Sarah Lionheart (also a performer with Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group).

In other key awards, Teepee Productions’ Fluff won Theatre Production, Emily Carding and Patrick Kealy won acting awards for Richard III and The Life & Rhymes of Archy & Mehitabel respectively, and The Pendleton Codebreakers from Salford won Youth Production for Breaking the Code. Sam Bates won New Writing for the play, Sessions. Also in Theatre, The John Beecher Memorial Award went to Australia’s Nuworks production, The Shoemaker of Havana.

In Music, there were also awards for singer Hannah Brine, Sheffield Music Academy, classical guitarist Jonathan Prag, Close Enough Barbershop Quartet, and Noel Coward celebrators Robert Hazle & Helena Northcote.

Visual Arts featured awards for Peak District Artisans’ Great Dome fair and Buxton Green Man Gallery artist, Jeff Perks.

Comedy awards went to Tom Hazelden and Joe Pike for My Last Two Brain Cells and Bolton stand up Maura Jackson.
Local man Terry Naylor won the Spirit of the Fringe award for his dreamlike installation about life on a kidney dialysis machine, Pots, Pans & A Splashing Machine.

Following a tradition for outgoing Fringe Chairs, Stephen also announced two special Fringe Chair awards for long-serving Caroline Small at the Green Man Gallery and also for Underground Venues which had to find a new, town-centre location in 2024.

See https://buxtonfringe.org.uk/awards2024.html for the full list of awards and nominations. Video footage can be found on the Buxton Festival Fringe’s YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/mYAQj-bQkiA