Our last guest for this week is Simon Abrahams, Creative Director & CEO, Melbourne Fringe Festival, as the guide to the Melbourne Fringe has now officially been released

Simon Abrahams leads Melbourne Fringe, one of Australia’s largest open-access arts festivals. With experience producing large-scale arts programs, Simon focuses on risk-taking, audience development and supporting independent artists. Under his leadership, the festival has grown participation and championed diverse voices across theatre, music, visual art and performance.

Previously, Simon sat on the and the City of Melbourne’s Night Time Economy Activation Taskforce, the Victorian Government’s Ministerial Council for Volunteering (2017-19), the Helpmann Awards’ Theatre and Children’s Panels and the Green Room Awards’ Contemporary and Experimental Arts Panel.

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In 2013-14, Simon held the position of Head of Programming at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, where he conceived, curated and programmed over 250 events annually.  He directed The Show Of The Year (with Casey Bennetto), created 20 Questions (with Ian Pidd and Martyn Coutts) and was a regular on-stage host, facilitator, and panellist. He completed a research project with the Australia Council for the Arts investigating theatre for young people in Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands in 2014.​

Simon was awarded a Margaret Lawrence Bequest Scholarship to attend the Senior Managers’ Program at the Melbourne Business School in 2009, and is an alumnus of both the Australia Council for the Arts’ Emerging Leaders’ Development Program (2012) and Arts Leaders Program (2016-18), as well as the European Festivals Association’s Atelier for Festival Managers (2016). He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Diploma of Arts (Cultural Studies) from Melbourne University, and a Diploma of Creative Arts (Theatre Studies) from the Victorian College of the Arts.

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Simon’s work has been awarded with a special 2020 Green Room Award for “Making the Impossible Possible” (Melbourne Fringe), a 2015 Melbourne Award (Melbourne Fringe), the 2011 Governor of Victoria Export Award for arts and entertainment (Polyglot), three AbaF Awards and the 2014 CHASS Future Leaders Award. In 2019, Simon was named as

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