Returning for it’s fourth year with over 50 high quality events already signed up for 2021.

The annual festival covers a wide range of genres, the Watford Fringe continues to have something exciting for every taste.

The Watford Fringe 1-3 October 2021

There are several award winning 5 star reviewed plays fresh from Edinburgh, Brighton and Camden Fringe Festivals; Musical Plays; Comedians; Jazz; Folk; Indie Music; Rock Music; Musical Theatre; Belly Dancing; Workshops; Henna; An Orchestra; Poetry; Musicians; Children’s acts; magicians; Art; Khatak Dancing; Choirs; DJ’s, new writing and much, much more. There will also be food, drink and of course a warm welcome.

Pump House Theatre, Colne River Room Studio and Charles Room
Watford Palace Theatre & Studio
The Watford Museum
_{The Horns}
Amanartist
d20 Café
The Tudor Arms

Elected Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor said: “I am really pleased to see that the Watford Fringe festival has returned for another year. We have provided funding for this and it’s a well-known and successful event run by the fantastic team at the Pump House. They have worked extremely hard to bring this festival back to life in person, after a limited event last year due to Covid-19.”

Lee Farman, Chair of Watford Pump House, said: “Five years ago, the Pump House as the quirky local theatre and hub for emerging talent thought, “Let’s do a Watford Fringe! And since that initial Fringe in October 2017 we’ve gone from strength to strength. Not even the Covid lockdown could stop the show last year. We extended the run and took it online with more than 50 acts livestreaming performances with some limited, socially distanced audiences. And now we’re back, planning in-person shows for 2021, with a great set of venues on board:

Clean! The Award winning Musical

Watford on 2 October.

A rousing celebration of women’s resilience and sisterhood, it won the Outstanding Show award at Brighton Fringe in June and attracted a string of five star reviews.

People likened it to Les Miserables, Six and Emilia. Clean: The Musical explores the lives of seven women living in the historic Roundhill (or Laundry Hill) area of Brighton through different eras. Highlighting how much has and hasn’t changed from 1880 to today, it is a rousing celebration of women’s resilience through difficult times. Sisterhood is a common theme – from laundry to women’s hospital to modern female friendships. Other themes include suffrage, sexuality, mental health, domestic violence and – topically – the smallpox outbreak in 1950, which has eery parallels with COVID seventy years later. In exploring these stories we see how universal and ‘modern’ these women’s experiences actually are. Roundhill is a conservation area with a rich history of service industries. It was home to a large number of laundries from the late 19th century, which provided work for local women, often independent of their husbands. The Tivoli laundry was involved in the 1950 smallpox outbreak. Roundhill was also the site of the first dedicated hospital for women with mental health issues, opened in 1905 by Dr Helen Boyle and her partner Dr Mabel Jones. A blue plaque is due to be unveiled later this year on the house where the hospital stood. Clean tells the stories of real and fictional women of varying ages and at different times in the area’s history and features fourteen original songs, from feminist anthems to heart- wrenching ballads.

Music by Simon Scardanelli (prolific singer-songwriter/composer and member of 80s band Big Bam Boo).

Book and lyrics by Sam Chittenden (Unquiet Slumbers, Sary, Underworlds, Metamorphosis, So You Say).

For ALL Fringe events, to find out more and to book your tickets please head over to watfringe.co.uk, If you would like to volunteer or get involved with the Fringe Festival, please contact Sharon Gaffney on 01923 241362 or email sharon.gaffney@pumphouse.info. The Theatre is located at Local Board Road off the Lower High Street, Watford WD17 2JP.