The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a performing arts festival that takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland at many theatres and sites, including Rocket Venues. Since its founding in 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become the largest performing arts festival in the world and gave rise to further fringe festivals internationally. North American fringe festivals represented in the collection include Hollywood Fringe Festival, which first launched in 2010 in Hollywood, California, as well as the San Diego International Fringe Festival, which was founded in 2003 in San Diego, California. Fringe festivals largely take place in North America, but also in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Xela Batchelder was the Executive Director of Rocket Venues from 1996-2008. As of 2015, she has been the Executive Director of Fringe University, LLC, which offers courses to enable university student groups to perform at fringe festivals, since its founding in 2010. Batchelder received an M.A. in 1996 in English and Art History from St. Andrews University in Scotland and a further M.A. in 1998 in Theatre from The Ohio State University; she earned her Ph.D. in Theatre (History, Literature and Criticism) in 2006 from The Ohio State University.