AFTER ten magical days packed with more than 200 shows, Ventnor Fringe has bowed out for 2022.
The festival drew huge crowds to all its many venues, from the new Big Top in Flowersbrook, to the stripey Magpie Tent in Ventnor Park, St Catherine's Church and Ventnor Arts Club.
The sun shone throughout the entire event, which meant the bars had a festival vibe as people relaxed around the sites.
Among the most popular shows were the variety and "pick of the Fringe" types, where the audience can see a few acts in one go.
A highlight on Friday night was the appearance of comedian and impressionist Luke Kempner as the star of the show - showing his prowess at impersonating Boris Johnson, Alan Carr and others.
His Macho Macho Man show had already been enjoyed by other Fringe-goers.
Fringe regular Ahir Shah hosted the evening and reminisced about the time he found out how excited Islanders get about new-fangled madness such as escalators.
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A change of pace could be found over at St Catherine's Church and in Ventnor Arts Club thanks to the new vocal duo of Cameron and Christie - impressive young tenor Thomas Cameron and the well-established Mike Christie of G4.
The pair recently discovered their voices gel beautifully together in harmony and thus the duo was born - the two will soon tour.
They were thrilled to debut at the Fringe and chose a fabulous range of popular songs from the musicals including Greatest Showman, Les Miserables and Moulin Rouge.
Their solos complemented the selection, including Your Song (Christie), and What a Wonderful World (Cameron), and a rousing rendition of Ole Sole Mio.
The singers were accompanied by the beautiful sound of Kate Robey on the piano.
St Catherine’s Church played host to several concerts during the festival, including Cowes-based jazz singer, Nina Ross, on Friday, which was attended by the County Press's Kate Young.
Accompanied by Tom Barker on piano, Jon Thorne on bass and Chris Jones on drums, Nina sang songs including I’m A Fool To Want You, as once sung by Billie Holiday; Wild As The Wind, which was performed by both Nina Simone and David Bowie; Blue by Joni Mitchell; Black Coffee by Peggy Lee and The Midnight Sun by Carmen McRae.
The concert was well received, and Nina also performed jazz versions of Island band Plastic Mermaids’ Milk, and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
Nina Ross’s promoter, Vaguely Sunny, also organised a concert featuring Pippa Reid-Foster on Scottish harp and Eva Alkula on Finnish kantele the previous night which proved to be magical.
Voting is now open for people to nominate their favourite Fringe act for the Rouse Ltd Audience Choice Award.
The Ventnor Fringe team said today: "That's a wrap, folks! A huge thank you to everyone who helped bring Ventnor to life over the past ten days with over 200 performances in the largest Ventnor Fringe to date.
"It's been a huge operation for a small community arts organisation, but we're so proud of what the whole town has created. Same time next year?"
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