Part of what I love about being in the Greater Toronto Area is the many festivals that take place year round.

As a person who has a great appreciation for the performing arts, it became a little bit of a challenge to be able to attend as many shows as I’d used to once I’d had our first child. When our first turned 3, we took a gamble and thought we’d start easy by bringing her to the movies, which she enjoyed, but had way too much ants in her pants to sit through the hour-and-a-half show. That Christmas, we went on a family trip, and had the opportunity to watch a couple of local live performances. All of these performances, my older child enjoyed tremendously. This was very exciting for me, I potentially had a buddy to go see shows with!

But of course, I couldn’t take my child to The Tarragon Theatre, or maybe a fun Mirvish musical theatre production, because 1) I don’t think my child cares for awesome contemporary new plays just yet 2) Mirvish productions, as fun and beautiful as they can be, are expensive and I’m not sure I want to invest in those ticket pricings quite just yet.

Which is why, in my opinion, the Toronto Fringe Festival is a great way to expose your child to performing arts at a young age without breaking the bank.

The Toronto Fringe Festival, in a nutshell, is an annual festival featuring over 150 productions in approximately 30 venues in Toronto. The productions itself, is extremely wide in range. Mounting a production at the Fringe Fest is purely by lottery only. If you get drawn, then you get to perform. Theatre space and time slots are also based on the lottery as well. Pretty much, you work with what you are given. Some shows are amazing, others, well, are, uhm, eyebrow-raising. Considering this is a festival featuring mostly new work, there’s bound to be some hits and misses. Some incredible hits in the past include Da’ Kink in My Hair, and the Tony Award winning The Drowsy Chaperone. Each year, as well as emerging artists, you’ll also find well known established performers participating in the festival. This year, Toronto Fringe Festival takes place from June 29 to July 10, so there’s still a few days left to catch a show if you like, either as a date night, or with your offspring(s).

Under the umbrella of the Toronto Fringe Festival, is the Fringekids Festival. All Fringekids performances take place at one dedicated theatre, the George Ignatieff Theatre at 15 Devonshire Place. Next to the theatre building is a spacious courtyard which the festival turns into the Fringekids Club, where activities, special guests and performances take place daily during the festival. This year at the Fringekids Club, award winning face-painter and clown Empress Cherry Sunday is there to make your kids feel and look fabulous. Your child can also get a chance to get “into character” with the various costumes they can try on and prance around in the courtyard. There’s also arts & crafts stations. Entry to the Fringekids Club is free, although donations are very much appreciated.

Fringekids shows are geared towards children anywhere between 3-12 years old. The program guide will have more specifics on the age it would be more suitable for. There are limited advance tickets for sale online, the rest can be purchased approximately an hour before the show at the theatre. Don’t be silly like me and forget that it’s CASH only. We went last Saturday and due to my aloofness (and you wonder why I wouldn’t have remembered, considering I’m a veteran Fringe audience participant…I blame it on overall loss of brain IQ due to lack of sleep from having two kids) we missed the show. The show starts on time, NO LATECOMERS will be admitted. The Fringe Fest is a stickler with the shows starting on time, and ending on time, because there are shows playing back-to-back. All Fringekids shows are no more than 60 mins in duration.

My older daughter and I went to the sketch comedy show Be More Pacific with Asiansploitation the following day instead. The show itself is for adults, but since the performers are long time friends, we’d discussed ahead of time whether the show content was PG enough for my 5 year old. There were a couple of swear words, but other than that, it was verbally very tame, and very enjoyable.

We’re planning on spending the last day of the Fringe Festival back at the Fringekids Club, and catch a few more shows. Ticket prices are very reasonable, $5 for children, and $12 for adults, and George Ignatieff Theatre is walking distance from St George subway station. Street parking is fairly widely available as well.

If you’re planning to leave the kids at home and go on a cool date night, there’s lots of choices. Along with Asiansploitation’s Be More Pacific which we watched, there are other worthy shows to checkout, such as All Kidding Aside, Tonight's Cancelled, and many more.

Happy Fringing!