The Pleasure Garden at FRINGE WORLD is a central festival hub in Russell Square, Northbridge, home to multiple big-top venues, outdoor performances, food, bars, and family-friendly activity. Open across long January–February evenings, it invites audiences to enjoy “balmy summer nights” in the heart of Perth, positioning warm weather and outdoor socialising as part of the festival’s appeal.
Perth’s summers are getting hotter and more volatile, with repeated heatwave conditions now forecast across several days in a row, regularly reaching high 30s and low 40s. For outdoor festivals, this increases the risk of heat stress, dehydration and unsafe crowd conditions and work, especially where shade, airflow, and access to water or cooling are limited. These risks have sector-wide implications for insurance, audience comfort, artist and staff wellbeing, and the viability of summer festival models that rely on prolonged outdoor attendance.
In this case study, P+ERL will examine how the Pleasure Garden’s policy, practice and programming are affected by extreme heat and weather events, and how the site can adapt. The project will also consider how climate-responsive design can align with FRINGE WORLD’s existing sustainability objectives so that climate adaptation and climate mitigation are understood as part of festivals of the future.
All images supplied by ART/RAGE.
