The first-ever fringe festival originated in Edinburgh in 1947. A group of artists, miffed that they hadn’t been invited to perform at the then-newly formed Edinburgh International Festival, said “to hell with it” and staged their own shows around the city. The creative carnivals have continued to pop up around the world ever since, and, while the breadth and variety of performances remain diverse, a few things stay the same. Fringe theater isn’t juried. There’s no artistic director, no censorship and no outrageous ticket prices. The result? An uninhibited outpouring of fresh artistic material from performers and artists you wouldn’t see anywhere else.

Price: Prices vary.