Fringe Hire

Thinking about bringing a show to the Dunedin Fringe Festival in 2027? Here is everything you need to know about hiring Te Whare o Rukutia during Fringe season.

During the Fringe festival things are fast paced with lots of shows and tight turnover. Te Whare o Rukutia runs two shows daily at 6pm and 8pm as well as Late Night slots on Saturdays that start from 9:30pm.

We curate the festival season at Te Whare o Rukutia. We will look at all applications for the venue and find how and when they can fit to make changeovers comfy for everyone and to help schedule your show for when it’s most likely to succeed. This does mean that we will take some time before letting you know exactly what dates/ times we can offer. However, if there is a specific day and time you would need to have then please let us know so we don’t offer you something you’ll hate.

Fringe Rate

Over the Fringe Festival we have a special rate to help artists get their shows on the stage.

Cost: $115 + 10% of ticket sales per performance

What’s included:

  • Staging
  • Basic lighting & sound setup
  • Projector and screen
  • Small dressing room
  • House technician
  • 1 hour of tech time in the space (or more by negotiation)
  • Front of House
  • Pre-show Bar

Room & Tech Specs

Lighting available at TWoR:

  • Front & back wash
  • Front & back colour wash
  • Colour changing house lights

Please note: we do not have any spotlights, or extra lights for complex design. If you are wanting more lighting options, you will need to hire in the necessary equipment. Let us know and we can chat about what is possible with our set up.

Sound & AV equipment available at TWoR:

  • FoH PA syestem
  • Foldback speakers
  • Wired microphones (up to 2 with mic stands)
  • Up to 1 instrument microphone
  • Up to 2 DI boxes
  • Sound mixing desk
  • House laptop running QLab
  • Projector and projector screen (located behind performer) – projection can be operated by the technician or from on the stage

Room setup:

Our stage is a 4.8m x 3.6m thrust sitting at 50cm tall. Our seating has a slight tier, accomplished through differing seat heights to assist with sightlines.

For Fringe we offer three main room layouts:

Venue set up in a thrust stage configuration with 100 seats and an aisle down the centre
Venue set up in a cabaret style seating
Venue setup with 80 seats in a 50/50 cabaret style seating

Our main setup is in theatre style with 110 seats and a centre isle. We also have the capacity for cabaret seating (60-80 seats) or 50/50 cabaret-theatre (80-90 seats) setups, however this may restrict times we can programme your show due to the complexity of the changeovers. If you would like a cabaret setup please let us know as early as possible.

I love it! What do I do now???

Get in touch with us by emailing tabitha@rukutia.nz. When you email we’ll be looking to know the following:

  • How many performances are you wanting to do?
  • Do you have a preference for days or times?
  • What space set up are you after?
  • What technical elements does your show involve?
  • Does your show have any set elements?

Once you’re confident you’d like to use the space you can apply through the Fringe Venue Finder portal. We will review applications and let you know the outcome when we can.