Fringe Flies Fabulously!

Perth’s Fringe World 2026: A Wild Ride through Primal, Briefs, Gasha, Circus Since 1994 and Hypnotist Matt Hale.

They say you haven’t truly lived until you’ve survived a summer at Perth Fringe World—and this year, survival is strapping in for a festival that is as bonkers as ever.

This year’s Fringe is delivering more than 600 shows and featuring over 3,000 performers – bringing laughs, wows, and a touch of weirdness that only WA can muster. It’s now the third largest fringe festival in the world coming in behind Edinburgh and Adelaide.

Fremantle Shipping News joined the ranks of the 500,000 expected to attend Fringe this year. Thanks Dixie Battersby for making it all possible—five shows in 3 days, read on . . .

Primal

Don’t miss Primal showing at The Heath Ledger Theatre. This show is for the child in you that loved the circus. But Primal is also sexy, funny and a thrilling circus for grown-ups. It’s a high energy and memorable show, with performers howling and leaping with a raw energy of the animal kingdom. There are six performers and it’s hard to have a fav as each is so talented.

Performers push their bodies to extremes I didn’t know existed, flying, twisting and contorting—straining their muscles against gravity in ways that seemed impossible.Imagine a female aerialist performing splits midair, with two performers suspended from her legs.

Kathryn O’Keefe and Emily Loe project a powerful feminine energy throughout the show. They led most of the acts and provided the strong bases for many of the stunts, flipping the male stereotypical role.

Real life married couple Kathryn and Paul O’Keefe’s deliver a gender-defying act. Kathryn’s feats of strength and flexibility had the audience gasping in disbelief. What she does with Paul while en pointe is unbelievable.

The solo acts are all amazing. Tro Griffith’s sexy routine shows ‘nearly all’ of his impressive physique, achieved by years of punishing discipline.

Jay Chasland aka Leather Lungs, delivers glass shattering operatic notes so high you’d never expect them from someone with a beard.

Ciara Thorburn adds fire and comedic burlesque acts to the mix.

Paul O’Keefe performs a memorable stunt, catching his toes on a string under a bar during a mid-somersault.

Primal delivers an unforgettable night – DO NOT MISS IT!

#since 1994

All the way from Taiwan and created by Eye Catching Circus, this all-female contemporary dance and circus show features high-intensity acrobatics exploring modern feminine themes. The show uses a minimalist black-floor setup in The Gold Digger’s round tent at The Pleasure Garden.

The five performers display extraordinary physical ability by tumbling and contorting to hanging suspended in impossible ways. One performer executes an amazing table routine that includes spinning and balancing a table on her feet.

This show is family friendly. You’ll be impressed by the physical feats and the gentle sincerity of the ensemble.

GASHA

Cirquework’s latest masterpiece: Gasha is making its dazzling debut at The Ice Cream Factory on Roe Street.

From the creators of Japanese circus sensation YOAH – winner of the BankSA Best Circus Award for two consecutive years at Adelaide Fringe, the performance continues the tradition of blending traditional Japanese artistry with cutting-edge circus innovation.

The stage descended into beautiful chaos, bursts of neon light and techno music. The show opened with a hair aerialist (yes, you read right!) standing on the circus floor, silk kimono pooling around her ankles, hair braided into a tight top knot. The music fades. Slowly, impossibly, she lifts—drawn upward by her own hair. The silk kimono drifts as her feet leave the ground and she wows the crowd with gravity-defying aerial silks – a superhuman hair hanging circus act.

The venue vibrated with energy. Lights, electric guitar and taiko drums accompanied synchronised movements that turned the stage into a kaleidoscope of colour and movement.This is a standout act, adding an unforgettable slice of Tokyo to Perth’s wonderful summer.

Briefs: The Works

Briefs Factory are performing The Works at The Ice Cream Factory. Think is a circus with attitude, lots of bad language, down and dirty drag with boylesque, set to a pumping music. These are performers who, some dressed minimally, have redefined cabaret through acrobatics, comedy, and impressive visual effects, using bucket loads of glitter and sky-scraper high stilettos.

This is an 18+ show. One strip act involves a banana . . . that I’m still unpacking. The crowd was in stitches and sequins were flying.

Don’t miss The Works. It’s Brief Factory’s 18^th year performing, and is one of the sparkliest, sassiest show this side of the Nullarbor. Spoiler alert if you sit near the stage—you’ll get soaked in the final act!

Hypnotist Matt Hale.

At a new venue, The Royale Theatre on Lake Street, Matt Hale blends comedy, and great 90s music with mind-bending audience participation. Within minutes, about 15 volunteers had rushed onto the stage ready to be hypnotised.

Matt kept the energy up and the laughs coming. The volunteers sat on the stage heads dropped in a trance, while Matt counted down, snapped his fingers and dropped suggestions. The volunteers danced, drove imaginary buses and performed what they were asked.

When the show came to an end, after a countdown to five, the volunteers ‘woke’, blinking and laughing as the spell broke. As I stepped into the street, the night felt slightly unreal, and I sensed the fragility of my own agency. Thank goodness I didn’t burst into song or dance on a Northbridge street.

My next show is: “Teardrops on My Dildo”. I think I’ll leave that one to your imagination!

Perth Fringe World 2026 is a ripper and runs until 15 February – see you there!

And here’s everything else you needed to know about Fringe!

*Story by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey

Jean Hudson is our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer, reviewer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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