Fringe poster winner revealed
An Adelaide-based Québécois illustrator has won the 2027 Fringe poster competition with her hand-shaped clay figurines.
A design by Adelaide-based Québécois illustrator Cécile Gariépy has won the 2027 Fringe poster competition.
Created from clay, Gariépy’s design features hand-shaped figures reflecting the diversity of real bodies and celebrating the connections between people on stage, in the audience and behind the scenes.
“When reading the brief for the 2027 Fringe poster, my immediate thoughts went to building something with clay,” Gariépy said.
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“There was something about the material that felt right straight away: it’s tactile, imperfect, and shaped entirely by hand, qualities that helped me create figures reflecting the diversity of real bodies.”
Gariépy said all the characters carry marks of being pressed and pinched into form, saying that “their imperfections aren’t flaws; they’re the point”.
“They make each of them feel like an individual person, with their own personality and presence,” she said.
“I’ve always loved making characters that feel wonky and human, and clay let me take that desire further.”
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Gariépy’s poster reflects this year’s festival theme of “Fringe for everyBODY”, which celebrates everything from artists taking to the stage to friends sharing a laugh, families discovering a show and the communities who bring it all together.
The 2027 competition attracted 360 entries, including 281 from South Australia and 24 international entries from 13 countries. Gariépy received a $10,000 cash prize thanks to Adelaide University, as well as free artist registration, which will be held for her to use in 2028.
The 2026 Adelaide Fringe saw $238.3 million in total expenditure and $165.8 million in new money, benefiting artists, audiences, venues, businesses and the community alike from the iconic festival.
There were more than six million attendances across ticketed and free events, a 6.4 per cent increase from 2025, and 1,083,014 tickets sold – the equivalent of filling Adelaide Oval more than 20 times.
Adelaide Fringe 2027 runs from February 19 to March 21, 2027, with ticket sales going live on December 4.
Arts Minister Kyam Maher congratulated Gariépy on winning, saying “her journey from Montréal to making her home and creating work here in Adelaide is a wonderful reminder of the artists and ideas our state welcomes, and the connections that grow from that”.
Fringe CEO and fellow Canadian Marc Carnes said that Gariépy’s work “inds so much personality in people and the ways we connect.”
“That’s a lovely starting point for ‘Fringe for everyBODY’, because Fringe is made by all of us, whether we’re on stage, behind the scenes or in the audience,” he said.
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