Fringe Festival 2025
In a world driven by efficiency and outcomes, Fringe wants to slow the pace and celebrate wandering. For three weeks, thirteen arts organisations in Leuven present a compelling programme of visual art, circus, punk, sound installations, and much more.
Get lost !
Across various locations in the city you can discover new and unfamiliar artists. They show how they arrive at ideas and insights by searching, drifting - and sometimes circling back.
Fringe Festival is a co-creation between various artistic players in Leuven and, in 2025, forms part of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary celebrations.
Stray from the shortest route, get lost along the side paths, and let yourself be surprised by the beauty that unfolds along the way.
Programme 20 november til 6 december
Permanent exhibitions
Opening Week
Fringe kicks off with an explosion of art, sound, and ideas. For three days you’ll discover new exhibitions, meet makers, and on Saturday, close with a Veduta concert night.
Programme week 2
Explore performances, artist talks, concerts, queer radio, workshops, and more.
Programme week 3
A week oftry-outs, concertes, students in M Leuven and a punk closing event.
About the theme: Get lost !
We live in a world steered by market logic and production pressure, revolving around efficiency and results. With lightning-fast internet, all information is at our fingertips in milliseconds. AI writes scripts before a writer can even pick up a pen, and Spotify’s algorithm ensures we seldom hear music that “doesn’t fit.” The arts, too, face shorter creation times and a rising production logic.
In an era where systems increasingly lead to predictability, algorithms shape our choices, and doubt is seen as weakness, Fringe offers a counter-proposal: a festival that invites you to wander and slow down.
The festival ties into KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary, themed “Knowledge knows no end.” Just as scientific research does not follow a straight line - branching, sidestepping, and driven by a wondrous urge to keep searching - creativity also springs from drifting.
Diverse artistic voices in Leuven show how a dynamic process of searching, musing, and sometimes returning can lead to new insights, unexpected forms, and ideas.
Fringe thus pleads for openness, wandering, and unhurriedness, guiding visitors along a path full of detours.
Co-production
Fringe Festival is a co-creation by various artistic players in Leuven and, in 2025, is part of the celebration of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary.
Partners
Stad Leuven, KU Leuven, BAC ART LAB KU Leuven, BAMM, AmuseeVous, Cas-co, Cirklabo, Coconuts, Expo Leuven, de FactorY, INUIT, Looping sessions, LUCA School of Arts, M Leuven, Queer Leuven, Radio Scorpio, Veduta, Werktank. Powered by LEF.
