The 2026 Fringe Awards were held on 26 July. This report follows the organiser’s announcement.
Buxton Festival Fringe held its eagerly-awaited Awards Ceremony in the grand surroundings of the Cavendish Room at The Palace Hotel for the first time. The event on Sunday 26 July 2026 attracted a host of Fringe entrants and committee members with Fringe Chair Ian Bowns leading the proceedings.
Ian pronounced it a “really great Fringe” and went on to thank the Fringe committee, the awards’ judges, reviewers, Fringe desk staff and volunteers, Fringe Friends, financial backer High Peak Borough Council, Morrisons, Parkwood Leisure (the new team there this year having been “absolutely stellar”), Lomas Distribution, local media especially Buxton Advertiser and Pure Peak, and the ceremony’s host, the Palace Hotel, which he said had become “a much more significant venue this year”. Above all, Ian wanted to “celebrate the performers and other artists” behind this year’s bumper 230 or so Fringe entries.
Before moving on to the awards, Ian also put out a cheeky appeal for more Fringe volunteers: “If you know someone you want to get out of the house…”
Among the local acts picking up award certificates in person were the Two Left Hands team winning Spirit of the Fringe for their open-air production featuring giant puppets entitled Guardians of the Wye, and Buxton Drama League accepting the Street Theatre award for The Shakespeare Jukebox.
Other local awardees included Funny Wonders picking up Visual Arts: Event for Buxton Flowerpot Trail and Hugo Edwardes winning the Artist award for his arresting installation Piano Pieces: Dismantled and Displayed. Meanwhile Buxton’s own Kate Butch won Comedy: Stand-Up, Macclesfield’s Sole Rebel picked up the Dance Award for its Jazz and Tap Dance Jam, High Peak singer Hannah Brine won Solo Vocal in Music and Ben Holder & Co – Buxton Jazz at the Old Club House picked up two further Music awards. Music: Large Ensemble and Small Ensemble were won by Derbyshire City & County Youth Orchestra and Cheshire Chamber Collective respectively.
Theatre is always a major category at the Fringe with Birmingham-based Teepee Productions picking up both Production and the John Beecher Memorial Award for Tell Me Where it Hurts. Youth Theatre awards went to actor Darcy Cassidy from The Pendleton Codebreakers for ‘My Mother Said I Never Should’ – present to collect her certificate – and Nottingham’s Shadow Syndicate for MATR[AI]RCHY. A further Comedy award for Show went to Oxford-based Maria Ansdell for her Closure Cabaret.
Full list of winners
buxtonfringe.org.uk/
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