The annual summertime deluge of theater shows comes back again this year with the Capital Fringe Festival, which announced today it will run from July 10 to 27. The non-profit, which started the city-wide festival in 2006, took home two well-deserved awards last year for their programming, the Mayor’s Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts and the Momentum Award from the Downtown DC BID. This year’s festival promises us even more shows and participants: a 30 percent increase over last year.

The festival says it has already lined up 130 performing arts groups, 20 venues, and will go on for the longest-run so far, a full 18 days. As the organizers put it:

Presentations run the gamut – there will be one act plays, comedies, dramas, musicals, dance, audience participation, puppetry, improvisation, clowns, hip-hop, jazz, poetry, social commentaries, mime, and more that is just simply unclassifiable.

There are shows for all ages and tickets typically run $15 to $35, which will go on sale in late June. The Festival runs on grants, donations and ticket sales — and 70 percent of the latter go back to the performers. Since they tend to celebrate emerging and experimental performances, they’re not kidding about shows “running the gamut.” Check out our reviews of past shows to get a taste of the good, the bad, and the ugly. But the mystery behind what quality of show you’ve signed up to see is all part of the fun — you never know if you’ll end up with a cringeworthy, soul-crushing experience, or happen upon a tightly-honed production of dance, music and acting with a message that’s worth every penny. We’ll bring you more details when this year’s Festival schedule is released.

Photo by Terecico