The programme for the 22nd edition of Tiger Dublin Fringe has been officially announced, a knockout 16 days of powerful and magical experiences for all.

Tiger Dublin Fringe is Ireland’s largest multidisciplinary arts festival hosting a staggering 73 productions, 412 performances, with 40 world premieres in 23 amazing venues. It’s a city takeover that includes yacht clubs, comedy bars, galleries, the Docklands, as all of the city’s favourite theatres come alive for Dublin’s landmark annual festival.

Kris Nelson, Festival Director, Tiger Dublin Fringe, says “We have a terrific lineup this year, rich in all kinds of jaw-dropping and thrilling experiences. A big night out for everyone and so many shows which will delight, inspire, provoke and astound. It’s a year of artists taking huge strides – it’s thrilling to present their work at Fringe. We’re so excited about this edition, it wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership and support from Tiger Beer.”

This year Fringe gets the keys to one of the city’s favourite gardens, Merrion Square – the fancy new pitch for the Spiegeltent as it returns in all its glittery glory, nestled amongst the beautiful splendour of Georgian Dublin. Busting up taboos and pushing boundaries, Fringe is where trends get set, where new styles of work thrive and clever ideas are born. Come see the radicals and experimentalists, the artists whose projects just don’t fit in the box – the crafters, the grafters, the misfits and the clarion voices all flourish at Tiger Dublin Fringe which runs across Dublin city from 10 – 25 September.

Fringe 2016 is about big nights out and this year’s festival programme hosts something for everyone. The stunning Merrion Square calls for spectacular shows and to fit the bill Dublin’s favourite festival welcomes the world premiere from the toast of the town, THISISPOPBABY, who celebrate their 10th phenomenal year with their most ambitious and entertaining show yet. RIOT is going to fire on all cylinders – siren songs, drag royalty, jockstraps, hurling helmets and sizzling spoken word. A show this powerful, inspired and ferocious is not to be missed.

It’s not just RIOT that’s rich with action and glamour at the Spiegeltent. Australia’s Briefs Factory presents Hot Brown Honey – an all-woman cabaret packing in more fun than all our birthdays and Christmases coming at once while provoking an edgy political pulse. It’s gonna be scorching number after number of burlesque, beat box and banging tunes. Comedy maven and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner (2013) Jinkx Monsoon lands into planet Fringe with her dashing companion Major Scales as they unearth their favourite pop tunes with The Vaudevillians. Get up close and personal with leading comics, take in sensational gigs from your favourite Irish indie bands and revel in experiential Spiegel parties.

The Spiegeltent too is the perfect venue for Film Fatale to make a very welcome debut at Tiger Dublin Fringe. Travel back in time with Ich Liebe Dich Cabaret!, a decadent celebration of the hedonistic era of dark glamour. Mad, risqué and uniquely eccentric, critically acclaimed, award-winning Gaulier-trained clown, Trygve Wakenshaw presents Nautilus, his beautifully strange stream-of-consciousness idiocy.

Fringe has been busy all year round strengthening its network with exciting cultural organisations abroad. The festival is delighted to collaborate with major cultural partners in Greece, Germany, Lithuania and Portugal as part of a network funded by the Goethe-Institut. Co-producers of Brokentalkers’ new work This Beach, the Goethe-Institut has enabled Fringe to bring Cláudia Dias’ searing Monday: Watch Out for the Right! (pictured below), to the National Stadium. She’s putting her dukes up in a fight you don’t want to miss. On the Canadian front, Fringe has found a kindred spirit in the vibrant SummerWorks Performance Festival – Toronto’s leading independent arts festival. With the support of the Ireland Park Foundation, Tiger Dublin Fringe is proud to host maverick artist Liz Peterson with her travelogue meets dance meets comedy Performance About a Woman and see Irish artists head off to SummerWorks in Toronto this August.

Irish performance artist Aoibheann Greenan makes her festival debut where she ritualises Wagner in a visual maelstrom of bondage and rave-inspired totems, strobe lights and gold lamé – The Perfect Wagner Rite runs at the RHA; Fringe, known for staging shows in amazing places and Black Pitch, Pitch Black by Aerial Cirque is just that – set in a dilapidated Victorian building in the heart of Dublin’s Creative Quarter, this new aerial theatre performance explores a young woman’s psyche performed by one of Ireland’s up-and-coming aerial silks artists, Ria Murphy. Fringe circus favourites Tumble Circus return with their new satirical show, Unsuitable. Expect acrobats, aerialists, jugglers and clowns, mixed with moments of physical poetry and astounding feats of circus. Audiences can strike a pose pop artists Adrian+Shane who create new paintings, screen prints and photographs in the heart of Temple Bar for ZOO. Become their muse and join in the creative process.

Fringe would be incomplete without its Show In A Bag series, brought to you by Tiger Dublin Fringe, Irish Theatre Institute and Fishamble: The New Play Company, and this year includes Niamh McGrath and Keith Singleton in their show Looking Deadly (pictured below) which highlights how good an Irish funeral is to complete your social calendar. Margaret Mc Auliffe (Rough Magic’s Digging for Fire & Jezebel) examines the importance of coming first and why it matters, in Irish dancing in the Humours of Bandon. Kate Gilmore (Town is Dead) peeks into a day in the life of a 21-year-old travel agent with a penchant for 1960s musicals in her show The Wickedness of Oz, and finally Helen Norton and Jonathan Whitebring their version of Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest to Fringe in To Hell in a Handbag, a subversively funny new take on an Irish theatrical classic.

The 2016 line-up is phenomenal. Diverse, compelling, with magical moments abound. All cultural tastes are catered for on a grand scale. There are artists you know and love making huge leaps, creating their next and best thing. Find new voices, new talent, new combinations of makers from across many disciplines. Fringe is the kind of festival where you can always hedge your bets; you’re certain to get bravery, quality and ambition. It’s the festival where you jump into the fray along with the hundreds of artists who will thrill Dublin this September. Be adventurous, think big, laugh out loud and leave it all on the dance floor. This is Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016!