This series had its genesis when I began photographing Vancouver area location shoots in the summer of 2010 to get over a long post-Olympics funk. Film and TV productions like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Fringe, Supernatural and Once Upon a Time and our own Continuum and Primeval:New World showcase our city in similar fashion and sometimes put a celebrity actor or two in the frame. find more on my daily blog yvrshoots.com.

A week today, about a hundred Fringe fans from around the world will gather in Vancouver at The Fringe Event to celebrate their TV show and its upcoming fifth and final season. Local fans — of which there are many — are welcome to join in on a weekend of Fringe-themed activities: like bowling at Sam’s bowling alley or hiking up to Reiden Lake (at their real locations in North Vancouver) or challenging a true Fringie to a show mythology quiz (Warning: they are walking Fringepedias. Don’t believe me? Ask to be introduced to Vancouver’s own @naddycat).

I had the privilege of meeting some of the event’s key international organizers at Fringe shoots last summer in the West End and Chinatown. They’d come from as far away as Australia, England, Germany and other countries to see their show being filmed on location, spending hours together on set bonding in their love of all things Fringe –  except maybe Anna Torv’s alt-universe red-haired doppleganger Fauxlivia, who’d come between the show’s most shipped couple POlivia in season three (fortunately Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop and Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham reunited again in season four and can be seen filming a scene below for upcoming season five in Stanley Park).

The Fringe fandom is like no other: smart, creative and loud (according to showrunner Joel Wyman). But the loudness is really the joining together and amplification of fan power through hugely successful Fringe Friday Twitter and Get Glue campaigns organized by Fringenuity, whose entire team will be attending next weekend. American network FOX even featured Fringenuity’s unique hashtags on their broadcasts of Fringe last season.

Above all, Fringe fans are fun. So don’t miss out on all the red vines and white tulips. The Fringe Event starts Friday evening, August 10th, and runs until midnight Sunday, August 12th, with inside events at the West End’s Coast Plaza Hotel. Fringe fans also care. Tickets cost C$135 but a large chunk of the proceeds will go to Oxfam Canada. Click on Registration for tickets.

Fringe is expected to resume filming of season five next week after an unexpected two-week production shutdown due to cast illness.

#TheyAreComing – Fringe’s season five premiere airs Friday, September 28th, at 9 p.m. on FOX in the U.S. and City-TV in Canada.