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I had the opportunity to pop into Calgary this past weekend for a visit w/ friends and an unexpected couple of days of shows at the Calgary fringe. I arrived after the fringe began so I missed some of the beginning "organizational fun". The last Friday - Sunday was decent, but that was due to the efforts of Dean and Stacy from Green Fools helping greatly to sort out and organize as much as they could. Thank you both for all your efforts. The producer Blair seemed to have more important issues to deal with. The pitch was not well thought out so it took a few days to get it really working. Blair promised a mall some entertainment (for a bit of funding I believe) on the second weekend of the fest. I went down to do a show, but there was no show to be had. The foot traffic was nearly non existent. After sitting through my time slot at the mall, I returned to the main pitch. Things seemed to be moving along there for a Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening was nice (though the wind picked up and threatened rain for a bit). Sunday was a whole new dilemma. Apparently Blair was upset that no on really did shows at the mall pitch on Saturday and told us "we needed to do shows even if there are twenty people there". I was not officially part of the program, nor was I compensated in any way for this "promised entertainment" yet I was expected by him to be doing shows even if there aren't many people. Yet another case of performer slavery in my opinion. The master even went so far as to threaten closing down the only working pitch he had to force us down to the empty mall. His lack of hospitality, organization, and simple interest in who we are (he called me Dave all weekend) and what we have to offer the fringe, makes this festival fall short in all areas. Hopefully they will change tactics or this will be a short lived festival.
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an abortion of a festival
i wrote them a mega pissy letter on Day 3. (for me)
"...Since arriving in Calgary I have consistently felt out of the loop and unsure as to what is going on. No one I have spoken to has been able to give me any definitive answers as to where i am meant to be or what i am meant to be doing. Considering that I was contracted as a working professional in order to enliven the streets during the festival I have felt that I am being taken for granted and that the street performance aspect of the festival has been given the lowest priority and executed in a halfhearted and amateurish manner. As a full time street entertainer for the last five years and having performed in numerous festivals the world over I think I am qualified in saying that the efforts of this years Calgary Fringe are well below the standard required to retain and attract professional street entertainment..." -
Bottle of H2o
Ya,
I showed up, got a bottle of H2o & my performer T-Shirt, saw how disorganized it was and left. It was a nice 4 day holiday. Needed the break for Edmonton. From all the info they were sending me, I figured it would have been awsome.Comment
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I did it...
I was booked several months out, through Stacy from the Green Fools, who'd been helping out with the street aspect...
A couple of weeks before the festival, I had an email from Blair, the producer, inviting me to be a part of the festival. I wrote back pointing out that I was actually already booked for his event. He appologised and admitted that maybe his finger wasn't totally on the pulse... By the end of the festival it was evident where his finger HAD been most of the time.
I arrived a few days into the festival, and tried to get a feel from the other performers about how it was all going... I didn't get much info, mainly because they were all pretty polite, positive minded folks, who figured "if you can't say something nice..."
We all discovered that there were in fact three different groups of performers all booked to work the same one pitch... The Green Fool's acts (booked months in advance), Acts that Blair had booked himself, and yet more acts that had turned up and Blair had said "yes" to.
From there, it just got better...
The green room was 4 blocks from the pitch & festival site.
There was no mention in the festival program of the EXISTENCE of street performers at the festival
The huge storage container for our stuff was VERY close to the pitch... in fact, it was right about where the AUDIENCE should have been standing!!!
At least one show per night was blown out by either the Band at the other end of the park, or by the Body Art show half way down the park.
Our lighting was often late or completely absent, because it was being used to illuminate either a band, or a Body Art show...
OK... having said all that, Stacy and Dean and the crew who were looking after our pitch were great, and really made something out of nothing. By the end of the week, word was getting around and people were coming down specifically to watch the shows... and they loved it.
The festival could be a really nice gig, with a little tweaking and a little listening to the people who are giving advice...
It was a good time with good people.Comment
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