Fringe Festival

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Nathan
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Re: Fringe Festival

#76 Post by Nathan » Mon Feb 29, 2016 9:32 am

Wayno wrote:My girlfriend and I have been overindulging in fringe events. Adelaide Oval Groupe F was the latest. Awesome. Going to watch a nude woman read a book later this week, and an acrobatics show, and Golem at the Festival Centre. On our second group of friends visiting from interstate - they are loving it too. One more group to come for the long weekend. I've put on about 3kg as we typically go for a meal and drink before/after each event.

And yep, amazing crowds...
Groupe F and Golem were Adelaide Festival events ;)

(Sorry, 'the fringe' becoming a catchall for all the festivals is pet peeve of mine)

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Re: Fringe Festival

#77 Post by Wayno » Mon Feb 29, 2016 9:44 am

Should we divide crowd numbers by fringe & festival participants too? what if i go to one of each on the same evening? i'm going to womad too :wink:
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Re: Fringe Festival

#78 Post by Nathan » Mon Feb 29, 2016 9:54 am

Wayno wrote:Should we divide crowd numbers by fringe & festival participants too? what if i go to one of each on the same evening? i'm going to womad too :wink:
Womad also falls under the Adelaide Festival banner 8)

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Re: Fringe Festival

#79 Post by ghs » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:13 am

According to the paper the fringe management are hoping to sell 600,000 tickets which would be a 20%
increase on last year.

The Adelaide festival also has a very strong program and should achieve record sales as well I would imagine.

Anyone heard how the hotels are going ? Surely they must be full.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#80 Post by Wayno » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:43 am

Nathan wrote:Womad also falls under the Adelaide Festival banner 8)
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My neighbour has rented out their house (airbnb) for the fringe duration. Getting a pretty penny too. Probably an indication of broader occupancy rates.
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Re: Fringe Festival

#81 Post by The Scooter Guy » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:59 pm

I really did enjoy my first time ever at the opening parade!
After seeing Trash Test Dummies at GOUD, I had a pint of Carlton Draught at the Stag!
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Re: Fringe Festival

#82 Post by claybro » Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:55 am

Rest assured Adelaide, despite every other state trying to muscle in on the Adelaide fringe success, the Adelaide fringe is still regarded as second to none for both patrons and performers. I have Airbnb guests at home here in Perth, and in the last few weeks have had a couple of fringe performers staying, both of who had performed in previous years in Adelaide and other festivals interstate. Both were from the UK, and inform me that Adelaide, for audience participation and general atmosphere leaves Perth for dead. They prefer it to the famous Edinburgh festival (for weather.) Also, an American tourist from Washington DC who caught the tail end of Perth fringe, but had visited the "Garden" in Adelaide thought the Adelaide set up was amazing. Even said it eclipsed his local festival in Washington for ambience. From a personal experience, Perth fringe lacks a focal point as the event spaces are spread over various sites in the inner city area, and does not provide the same critical mass of people as the Garden of unearthly delights does. The Rundle/Rymil park in Adelaide are a real gem, a combination of intimacy and green space, easily accessible to the inner city just like botanic park at Womad time.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#83 Post by ghs » Tue Mar 01, 2016 1:07 pm

I think the cooler weather is one of the reasons for the strong crowds this year. If we had a
heat wave for a couple of weeks in late Feb. that would obviously have a detrimental effect on numbers.

The weather so far has been perfect and it looks like continuing on.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#84 Post by rev » Mon Mar 07, 2016 4:53 pm

Surprised nobody has posted this yet...
"Terrible festival - the worst by a long shot": Has Adelaide gone beyond the Fringe?

So began a withering critique of South Australia’s iconic annual alternative arts festival by British comedian Alexis Dubus – a critique that garnered empathetic plaudits from a raft of visiting artists – bemoaning the mindset of local audiences and alleging the March mainstay has been compromised by “greed and complacency”.

“This is going to be my last time playing you,” Dubus posted on Facebook on Saturday, lamenting he was “nine shows in and my total sales across my entire run are still 50 per cent of my OPENING NIGHT sales in Perth”.

The Perth Fringe ran from January 22 to February 21.

“Something’s not right here any more,” Dubus continued.

“When I first came here in 2009 it felt like a genuinely experimental and exciting creative hub, with audiences seeking out tucked-away venues and subversive shows.

It’s a bit of a kick in the dick, to say the least.

“Having visited Adelaide before, I was blown away by how much this sleepy town got behind the weird and the wonderful offerings that Fringe threw at them. Seven years on and those people seem to have vanished.”

He said throughout the “bustling” Perth festival, he watched his Adelaide pre-sales “remain at seven for most of the month, leaping up to a grand total of eight a month later”, with little improvement at the door.

“This weekend, at the second biggest arts festival in the world, I’m looking at bookings of 15 on Friday, five on Saturday and 0 on Sunday, for a show I’ve spent a year writing and am pretty proud of,” Dubus concludes.

“It’s a bit of a kick in the dick, to say the least.”
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Alexis Dubus. Photo: Facebook.

He argued it was not just him, with a “handful of crowds” gathering for award-winning comedian Brendon Burns, “phenomenal talent” Shirley Gnome being forced “to pull three shows in a row” and local funnyman Jason Pestell being “repaid by his home crowd with the sparsest amount of bookings he’s ever seen”.

“I’m not sure what can actually be changed at an open access festival that’s now seemingly allowed greed and complacency to dictate its direction, but part of the change has to be the attitude of Fringe-goers, who need to re-evaluate the meaning of ‘fringe’,” Dubus wrote.
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“Audiences choosing soulless, mass-produced bollocks over thoughtful, innovative works in quirky spaces is what has now turned the Fringe into what it was initially rallying against.

“And when the enormous venues choose to throw out hundreds of free tickets (because they can), sometimes to people actually waiting in the box office queue to buy tickets for smaller shows that need their custom, this only creates an atmosphere of entitlement among Adelaide audiences, believing they should now get their entertainment for free.”

The social media post has been shared almost 250 times, including by a number of Fringe performers. Burns himself added his own feedback, remarking: “I’m afraid to say every word of this is true.”

I have lost count of the amount of times I bumped into world-class international acts, declaring they would never return. I certainly won’t.

“Never have I attended a supposed international festival with such a poor attitude,” wrote the Australian comedian, who launched his television career appearing alongside Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais as a performer on Britain’s The 11 O’Clock Show.

“I have lost count of the amount of times I bumped into world-class international acts, declaring they would never return. I certainly won’t.”

Burns bemoans the “entitled” attitude of insistent hecklers in several artists’ shows, warning fellow performers: “Whatever you do, don’t do Adelaide – a tiny market with quite possibly the most unjustifiable chip on its shoulder you’ve ever witnessed… rude, arrogant and what they probably describe as ‘laid back’ is frankly just laziness.”
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He says “countless touring acts” – citing Prince, Elvis Costello “and even Michael Jackson” – had historically cancelled SA shows because “the public seem to be under the impression that they are the one place on earth that doesn’t need to pre-book… and for some reason it’s a city that refuses to learn”.

“Terrible festival – the worst by a long shot… some lovely people but they really are being let down big time by some of the worst attending public I have encountered anywhere,” Burns concludes.

“And I truly feel for them. Because I guarantee they’ll fuck this up like they did the Grand Prix. And they shall remain clueless that it’s their own damn fault.”

Ominously, the impression appears widespread – and just how widespread could soon be quantified.

Artist Fee Plumley, who has been running Hammocktime at Gluttony, posted this on social media over the weekend: “Given multiple concerns about dwindling audiences & big budget pressures on small fringe productions, would anyone be interested in taking a look at [or] sharing a survey?”

She said she had drafted one and wanted feedback “before sharing publicly”.

“Not trying to cause trouble, just curious as to what we can do to improve things (rather than just whingeing and waiting for someone else to do something),” she wrote.

Dubus says despite career-best reviews he is facing the prospect of another career-first – cancelling his show in the final weekend.

He notes the “wonderful” efforts of the Fringe staff, who “I imagine have been hearing some pretty desperate tales over the course of the month from those on a small budget trying to provide something with artistic merit”.

His original post elicited feedback from a raft of current and prospective artists, with WA-based comedian Dez Pondent writing: “I was thinking about fringing in Adelaide next year but will give it a miss now considering this.”

One-time Dexys Midnight Runners keyboardist Pete Saunders – in town with his Blues and Burlesque show – weighed in: “Ultimately Adelaide doesn’t have the population itself or nearby to allow small genuinely fringe producers to compete with the marketing budgets of such large commercial ventures as the Garden of Unearthly Delights or the Croquet Club.”

“It’s not just about the money, it’s about audiences. I do fringe festivals to play to interested, attentive audiences… but those audiences are being hijacked by people who just interested in the money.”

Self-proclaimed “king of alt-cabaret” Tomás Ford said the Dubus “rant” has “inspired me to have one of my own”, concluding he “dodged a bullet in deciding not to go to the Adelaide Fringe this year”.

“There’s a lot that needs to be fixed before I’ll take it seriously as a place to present my work for a full season again,” he wrote.

“Which makes me sad; when it was good, that festival was really, really amazing. Now, I’m afraid it’s largely just a financial sinkhole for independent producers to throw their cash into.

“It needs super-radical change if it wants to be a Fringe and not just a beer garden with huge commercial works.”
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Tomas Ford. Photo: Facebook.

Ford continued: “Bizarrely proud as Adelaide is of putting its entire cultural calendar into Mad March, actual Fringe acts cannot compete with the marketing budgets being thrown around.”

“The Garden Of Unearthly Delights and Royal Croquet Club are their own festivals and have the marketing muscle to compete in March,” he said.

“They are actually wonderful places if you don’t take into account them fucking up the rest of the Fringe for everybody.”

Fringe director and CEO Heather Croall told InDaily organisers were “not taking this lightly” and “we really want to help the small artists cut through in their venues”.

Our staff are absolutely committed to the ‘Fringest of the Fringe’

However, she noted that Dubus’s complaint related to his “Versus the World” show at Tuxedo Cat, while his second show, featuring his well-known alter-ego Marcel Lucont, was selling well at Gluttony.

“It’s disappointing that some of the smaller venues do struggle, but interestingly it’s been a good year for a lot of the smaller artists in the smaller venues as well,” she said.

“So there’s definitely a range of different experiences going on right now in the Fringe, with a number of indie shows that are selling out.”

She pointed to Michael Burgos’ Tuxedo Cat show Eulogy – among others – as strong performers, saying it was “the first time the act had been in the Adelaide Fringe and he had no idea what to expect”.

“He sold out every single show… he worked really hard on the streets reaching out directly to his audience, he arrived a week early and promoted it for a whole week before it opened,” Croall said.

“With everything in the Fringe, it’s up to the artists and venues to do the marketing for their shows… some think the Fringe runs the venues – I’m not sure which venues they think we run, but we don’t promote any single show over another.”

She said Fringe organisers offer “a lot of opportunity through our artistic services” to support artists with their own publicity.

She also noted there was a time when the Garden of Unearthly Delights was responsible for 75 per cent of all Fringe tickets, whereas now the Garden, Croquet Club and Gluttony combined represent 60 per cent of ticket sales, with 40 per cent sold in independent venues such as Holden Street Theatres and Tuxedo Cat.

“Holden Street sold more tickets than ever before this year,” she argued.

“They’ve been building a subscriber base over many years so they can contact their audience directly.

“Some venues are not getting on top of the marketing they need to do [but] our staff are absolutely committed to the ‘Fringest of the Fringe’.”

According to Croall, “when you’re budgeting for a Fringe show you should set your budget based on 40 per cent of the house as a pretty good night”.

“What we’ve discovered in the last 24 hours of studying all our sales is a lot of smaller indie shows are doing way better than 40 per cent of the house,” she said.

“These are independent shows that are well outside the big hubs [so] if certain spaces aren’t doing well we have to work out how we can help them in the future.”

Croall says she’d “love to set the challenge for Adelaide”.

“We’ve got one week to go – try a different venue every night!” she urged.

But it may be too late for some of this year’s disgruntled visitors.
http://indaily.com.au/news/local/2016/0 ... he-fringe/


As far as this performer goes, it seems he's a little pissed nobody wants to go see his show, so he's lashing out at the public. That's a sure way to win over more fans.
Just because he's spent a year writing his show, just because he's proud of it, doesn't mean it's good, doesn't mean it's going to be popular. Not saying it's not good, but just because you've invested your time into something, doesn't mean others are going to appreciate it or see it the way you do.

This stood out..
“He sold out every single show… he worked really hard on the streets reaching out directly to his audience, he arrived a week early and promoted it for a whole week before it opened,” Croall said.
What did the guy having a sook do?

He obviously doesn't think as highly of us as he does of him self..after all we are just a "sleepy town"

Oh but wait, he doesn't just have a dig at the people of Adelaide for not grovelling at his feet and treating him like royalty...
“Audiences choosing soulless, mass-produced bollocks over thoughtful, innovative works in quirky spaces is what has now turned the Fringe into what it was initially rallying against.
...he has a problem with other performers and guests at the Fringe as well.

In all the years that I can remember of Fringe, and reading about it, I don't think I've ever read any artist or performer or group being so full of them selves and having a go not only the locals but other performers/artists from around the world.
“And when the enormous venues choose to throw out hundreds of free tickets (because they can), sometimes to people actually waiting in the box office queue to buy tickets for smaller shows that need their custom, this only creates an atmosphere of entitlement among Adelaide audiences, believing they should now get their entertainment for free.”
As opposed to the self entitled attitude he has? The attitude of "the world owes me"..or Adelaide audiences at least.

Venues give out free tickets to help promote what's on offer at the venue, to bring people in, who will spend money on food and drinks.
People who may otherwise not consider going there, but will have a look with a free ticket, who may like what they see, and decide to come back another night and this time pay for a ticket, or tell friends and family about it if they had a great experience there and those people may go buy tickets to go see a show there.
It's called promotion, you DICK HEAD.

To be honest, sounds a little like a paid off pissant, throwing out some old stereotypical cliches about Adelaide, while trying to subtly hype up Perth's attempt at copying the Fringe.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#85 Post by Wayno » Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:59 pm

I too dislike the 'soulless bollocks' shows that regularly sell out each year, such as the typical gang of comedians that frequent the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Blech! That stuff is not 'fringe' in the least. Get it the hell out of here. It's tainting and adversely influencing perceptions.

I do believe the Fringe could/should be better promoted to encourage people to take more risk and be more adventurous when choosing shows to attend. I do this as much as possible, and wander into shows at the last minute. Rarely do I leave feeling disappointed.
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Re: Fringe Festival

#86 Post by Norman » Mon Mar 07, 2016 6:10 pm

Maybe we should create a comedy festival in winter to get the crowds out and make the Fringe less about them and more about the fringy stuff. Or we could see how many of the attendees go to see a big show and stay or return for a small show.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#87 Post by mshagg » Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:28 am

Some of the smaller acts are taking the piss with their ticket prices, although im guessing that's largely the venues doing their best to make ends meet. Somewhat less inclined to 'take a chance' when it's over $30 a head.

But yeah, kinda roll my eyes a little when people rattle off their fringe to-do list as Arj Barker, Will Anderson, Peter Helliar and the croquet club.

Alex Dubis' rant is pretty pathetic though. Im sure it's incredibly difficult to make yourself heard above all that's going on, but writing the people of the host city off isn't going to help much. And if his comment about the F1 is as 'edgy' as the rest of his show i'll probably give it a miss, thanks.

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Re: Fringe Festival

#88 Post by rev » Tue Mar 08, 2016 5:26 pm

One of the guys in Naked Magicians, from Brisbane, has responded to that other guys rant about Adelaide and Fringe..
An open response to Alexis Dubus, regarding your slamming of the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Firstly, I am sorry to hear about your terrible ticket sales at this years fringe festival, I would not wish that misfortune on any performer or producer, however your (now viral) post against both punters in Adelaide & the festival itself, seem unfair and inaccurate.

In your first paragraph you make note of how much the Fringe Festival has changed since you first attended in 2009. This is correct, 7 years have passed, and much like with iPhones and Prime Ministers, a lot changes in 7 years.

You say later in your article that “ ... part of the change has to be the attitude of Fringe-goers, who need to re-evaluate the meaning of “fringe.” How dare you tell audiences how to spend their money and their time (the thing they can’t get a refund for)?!

Alexis, you don’t get to tell audiences what to do, your job as a performer/producer is to put on shows that people want to see. If I go to a restaurant and don’t order the curry because I feel like pasta instead (this imaginary restaurant caters to all tastes you see), the Chef isn’t going to come up to me and ask me to “re-evaluate what butter chicken means to me”.

You continue to say that you have been betrayed by “the logical rule that good reviews + promo spots = more punters”.

#‎false

A clever show + twice as clever branding + spending time and MONEY on marketing = more punters.

You say you have handed out “thousands of flyers” which did not aid in your ticket sales. If you have handed out that many flyers and only sold 20 tickets in a weekend, I hate to say it, but your flyer may very well be sh*t.

Most importantly though (and I don’t say this lightly), you fail to acknowledge that many shows are born at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which then evolve to do amazing things.

The incredible “Velvet” debuted there and has since toured globally to amazing success. This year there sales have over tripled, which is anything but the sign of a dying festival.

And on a personal note, the little show I made with my two best friends “The Naked Magicians” was discovered there. This was the place where a venue (the amazing Daniel Michael and Gluttony) took on a show that was brand new, and the place where national and international promoters came to see our creation and said “Yes”.

So I absolutely wish you the best for your endeavours, but before you blame corporate greed, big venues pushing out the little venues, and the mindset of potential audiences, maybe assess your approach to the business side of show business.

Show business isn’t your birthday party, you can’t expect people to come and bring you gifts just because you are putting on an event, its very much The Hunger Games, so maybe it’s time to get a better weapon ...
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

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Re: Fringe Festival

#89 Post by The Scooter Guy » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:21 pm

Here's the 2017 Fringe Poster!

Image
After an exhaustive selection process and more than 200 entries from all over the world, we're ecstatic to announce that French-born, Barossa-based artist Jennifer Rimbault's entry, Unicorn, is the winner of our 2017 Poster Design Competition!

We asked for entries that represented the mythical nature of our fabulous Fringe and we felt that Jennifer's entry perfectly exemplified the wonder of Fringe time.

Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO Heather Croall said, “we called for a poster that echoed the exciting and magical spirit of the Fringe. The Fringe transforms Adelaide into a wild wonderland of mythical proportions and it encourages people to step outside their usual schedules and be whatever they want to be. Jennifer’s design captures that.”

“The Adelaide Fringe is all about discovering the unexpected. Every year we encourage audiences to take a risk on the unknown and we think Jennifer’s unicorn is the perfect embodiment of that Fringe message.”

Jennifer Rimbault said she used a unicorn in her design because she wanted to give a glimpse of the artistic "wonderland" created in Adelaide by the Fringe.

“I think the festival is as mythical and magical as a unicorn. The creature in my poster isn’t what people would expect, though – it is quirky and unusual, just like the Fringe,” she said.

“I was so surprised my design was chosen and I feel blessed that it will be used to promote such a loved event.”

A humongous thank you to everyone who took the time and made the effort to enter our competition - we absolutely loved seeing everybody's creativity and the many different ways this year's brief was interpreted!

You came here to see the 2017 Adelaide Fringe poster, so we'll stop waffling now - HERE IT IS!

Source: https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/news/ ... e-unicorn/
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Re: Fringe Festival

#90 Post by Llessur2002 » Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:01 am

Should be good :D
In 2018, the Adelaide Fringe will create a spectacular corridor of light connecting the city’s eastern parklands to the Riverbank precinct, transforming buildings on both sides of North Terrace with an array of magnificent light projections across all 31 nights of the Fringe.

The Parade of Light will also include an Australian first - the spectacular luminous outdoor light show, Aurora Borealis, aka the Northern Lights.

Next year's Fringe opening ceremony, led by Karl Telfer, will lead into the switching on of the projections and Aurora Borealis, with the North Terrace forecourts coming alive with Fringe artists performing in a huge street party celebration.

See a sneak peek of Aurora Borealis in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMAtG5rGa-w

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