When I say the word “fringe” – and not in a “sewing” kind of way – chances are, you think “weird.” Fringe theater certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to mean weird or scary or off-putting. It can also mean thrillingly original. A breath of fresh Colorado air. Or even a taste! (Wait for it.)

Fringe just means you are about to see something that is unconventional. Outside the mainstream. Perhaps experimental. Best of all: Almost always short.

After years of sitting in the dark and watching mostly linear stories play out on a boxed stage, I have come to fully appreciate fringe theater as simply an escape from the ordinary. If you ask me if I’m looking forward to seeing “Mamma Mia” for the eighth time, and I say “yes” – please just know that I am lying to you. Really lying. But take a scroll down the lineup for this weekend’s fourth annual Denver Fringe Festival, and you can’t help but be intrigued. Even energized.

Take, for example, “Camping with Dad.” I know nothing more about this than what it says on the website: “Carter McGrath is a Denver journalist ‘and seeker of silliness’ who invites guests to sit with him by the fire, ask and learn how we can all work together to make tomorrow’s dads as kind, open-minded and dorky as possible.” I’m in. Because I’m guessing at the heart of that fun is an honest and meaningful look at society’s often changing definition of masculinity and “dadliness.” And, if not, they promise: There will be s’mores. It’s just 30 minutes long, and it plays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday (June 8) and Friday (June 9) at Immersive HQ, 1421 26th St.

The Denver Fringe Festival, founded by Ann Carey Sabbah, is really hitting its stride in year four with 55 scheduled events over four days of magical chaos in unconventional venues throughout Denver’s RiNo and Five Points neighborhoods. That’s up from 40 last year, when about 3,000 attended shows that spanned aerial, immersive, comedy, dance, magic, and even a few old-fashioned theater plays. About 300 more attended free, family friendly “KidsFringe” events that this year will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the Savoy Denver, at 2700 Arapahoe. Check out the 10 a.m. concerts (both days) by the BenAnna Band (get it?) that promise to have your kids singing, dancing and playing along on live instruments.

Who can ever really be sure when recommending “can’t-miss” fringe shows that no one has ever seen before? No one, that’s who. But at the Denver Fringe, nothing ever costs more than $15. So, take a chance. We can surely recommend four more experiences that sound interesting. Among them:

• “Pricks! A Vaccine Musical”: A singing, dancing musical dedicated to honoring vaccination science and its impact on humanity? I’m already rolling up my sleeve for this retrospective on everything from smallpox to cowpox, influenza and beyond. Time to put the “whoop” in your whooping cough. “Pricks” is 55 minutes long and plays at 8 p.m. Friday (June 9); 5 p.m. (June 10) and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, (June 11) at the Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St.

• “American Addict”: This is a new piece by a hardcore Denver acting studio called Visionbox, which means its look at the ongoing crisis of drug and alcohol addiction in our nation should be intense. It’s based on interviews with addicts in recovery, their friends and family, and healthcare workers and professionals. Director Jennifer McCray Rincon’s intent is to peel back some of the social stigma and shame that keeps many addicts from finding recovery. It’s 75 minutes long and plays at 4:45 p.m. Friday (June 9), 7:30 p.m. Saturday (June 10) and 5 p.m. Sunday (June 11) at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater, 119 Park Ave. West.

• “FoMo” (or, “Formerly Mormon”): Denver’s Frankie Lee premieres his one-man play that takes a genuine and humorous look at the chance he took to escape Mormonism and live as an open gay man despite the pain and opposition he faced. It’s 50 minutes long and plays at 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday (June 10) at Rise Comedy, 1260 22nd St.

• “Triptych: A Shifting History of Inherent Femininity”: Grace Olinski and Denver native Amelia Corrada play two so-called friends who meet up at various moments in time to reconcile with the realities of sex, love, gender and life. It’s 70 minutes long and plays at 5 p.m. Friday (June 9), 8 p.m. Saturday (June 10) and 3:30 p.m. Sunday (June 11) at the Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St.

There are 50 more like that. And not all of them are shows. Some, we don’t know what they are exactly. Take, for example, Denver counter-cultural icon and curatorial trash collector Andrew Novick, who has been aptly described as “Denver’s prolific provocateur of wackiness.” (Among other things, he once hosted a diabetes-inducing “X-Treme Pancake Breakfast” at the Denver County Fair.) He and Merhia Wiese have put something together for the Denver Fringe called “Taste the Rainbow,” which is being pushed as some kind of a freaky-deaky, surrealistic pop-up experience featuring “the tasting of multiple flavors of ice cream that will captivate your senses and challenge your perceptions.” Which might just be Novick’s funny way of saying he’s going to have an ice cream stand at the festival. It’s at the new Hope Tank at 1434 E. 22nd Ave. You can pretty much visit anytime throughout the weekend, but it does require timed admission entry every 20 minutes.

That’s the thing with fringe. You never really know what anything is until you put yourself out there and take a lick of it for yourself.

Check out the complete festival lineup at denverfringe.org/shows