RIP, Roxy. Image care of Global Edmonton.

The Nextfest Arts Company is deeply saddened by the loss of the Roxy Theatre. As our home for the past 20 years, The Roxy nurtured thousands of emerging Edmonton artists through the first steps of their creative careers, and was home to countless colourful and meaningful memories.

The iconic Roxy Theatre is sorely missed, but will live on in the hearts of all the artists, technicians, administrators, volunteers and audience who helped build Nextfest into Edmonton’s most unique celebration of original encounters in theatre, dance, music, visual art, film and multidisciplinary collaborations.

Thankfully, the spirit of a community and its art are not confined to one building. While the loss of the Roxy Theatre presents a significant challenge for Nextfest’s 2015 programming, our festival will not be stopped!

The heart of Nextfest is its strong community, and we will rally to help Theatre Network rebuild from the ashes. We will continue to celebrate Edmonton’s vibrant emerging arts community by finding creative ways to host our more than 600 artists in our 20th year of Nextfest this coming June, 2015.

Our curatorial and administrative team are already hard at work brainstorming solutions. We thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support during this difficult time. With your help, Nextfest 2015 will be the best fest yet. Please keep an eye on nextfest.ca and @NextfestArtsCo for details!