Now that Social Great is trending foursquare check-ins for Minneapolis/St. Paul, you can see that the Rarig Center is one of the most visited venues in the TC this week. w00t! (Sign up to have your foursquare check-ins counted.)
A sampling of the official Fringe photographers’ photos go up on the website every day. Ooh, aah, whatnot.
I’m still blown away by the numbers from opening weekend. Attendance over the first four days is up 19% over last year. It’s crazy how many shows sold out so early on in the festival as well (ten in the first weekend!).
Over at Secrets of the City, Christopher Kidder made this observation:
The fact that there are more people attending Fringe shows this year actually surprised me, as the venues have seemed a little less busy, less crowded and less frantic between shows to me. I’ve noticed a marked lack of the rambling excitement that has possessed crowds of years past. Not as much mingling, nor as much banter being thrown around by people waiting out and about. I’ve been accosted by far fewer performers trying to get me to see their shows.
I concur on the decrease in show flyers being shoved at me. This pleases my girlfriend who has expressed concern over the environmental impact of All. That. Paper. I wouldn’t say that venues seem less busy, crowded, or frantic than last year but then I haven’t seen nearly as many shows and haven’t been out there as much. Hard to tell when there are new venues, as well. I don’t know what “busy” looks like at Augsburg or Gremlin. Folks have been plenty chatty in the lines I’ve stood in. (You can read Chris’s show reviews at Fringe by Numbers.) What do you think? Does it feel calmer out there?
In the SOTC comments, Kassie expressed these concerns:
My complaints, which I wish there was a good place to express, is that there isn’t enough cultural diversity in the shows, the website and mobile site don’t remember me, and Rarig needs food and drink.
On the food, I can’t believe someone doesn’t rent an ice cream wagon or taco truck or crepe stand or whatever and park it outside the Rarig Center. There’s got to be some legal reason. Where’s the Magic Bus Cafe when you need it?! They would clean up.
As far as cultural diversity, I responded with the following:
On the cultural diversity thing, they do reserve a certain number of slots for shows that self-identify as representing or serving minority groups (same as they reserve some slots for out-of-towners and teens). They are very adamant about the lottery system, but companies sometimes roll the dice as to whether they think their odds are better in the “reserve” pool vs the larger pool. So, to an extent, the cultural diversity (or lack thereof) is reflective of the groups that apply in the first place. Whether the festival can do a better job of encouraging said groups to apply is something to discuss. There’s also the part where the onus is on the groups that make it in the festival to market their own show well and to adequately represent it on the web site.
This is definitely something the Fringe Festival keeps an eye to but there’s certainly room for improvement. I can think of a handful of performers and groups off the top of my head that could do Fringe shows that haven’t for whatever reason.
Continuing with the feedback, TCDP Fringe blogger Kate Hoff had this to say:
I would like to suggest, in the future, that the Fringe publish a suggested reading/viewing list prior to the festival so that we can bone up prior to seeing the corresponding shows. This year, we’d be looking at Jurassic Park, the Harry Potter series, Pulp Fiction, King Lear and Moby Dick, for starters. Even just this would have better prepared me for Winnemucca: Three Days in the Belly, a Shelby Company Production showing at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage…
Ignorance is bliss; I happily went into the production unaware that knowledge of the source texts would be useful, or even that source texts might exist. Or what source texts are. (As fellow blogger Phillip Low left the building, I asked if he’d understood the show and his reply was “Yes, but I’m quite familiar with the source texts.”) …
Later I come to find out (thank you, Wikipedia!) that this is a bona fide bible story. I wonder if those who have religion (and that’s not me) would recognize it as such, or would think it something darker, as I did. What is good? What is evil? And how will you know?
That’s a good point. In aggregate, I think it would make for an interesting depiction of the variety of shows in the festival. I’d also say artists could do a much better job of pointing this stuff out in their show descriptions, which go live at the beginning of July, several weeks before the festival starts. I probably couldn’t read Moby Dick in that time frame, but I could certainly check Wikipedia or read some Cliffs Notes.
I’m thinking for next year, with the now-more-prominent Concierge Desk at Fringe Central and the increased pimping of fringefestival.org as the best source for Fringe info, it’d be nice to have a computer kiosk at the Desk for checking the Fringe web site. I looked up a few things on my phone for people who had questions on Saturday. I’m thinking this could be the most useful for people who have questions about what shows are good (so they can check reviews) or who want to make reservations (so they don’t have to go back home and get online to do it).
Do you have feedback for the Fringe?
Disclaimer: I’m on the Minnesota Fringe Festival’s Board of Directors. Opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the official position of the Fringe unless noted.
2 Comments
And I have tons of good feedback about Fringe. I’d like somewhere to express that too. Especially how great the volunteers are. They somehow keep all those people going to the right place and I’ve never seen anyone actually angry or upset. It is amazing.
Feedback mechanisms are definitely something I’m going to ask about. That’s good feedback!
The Fringe does not run without the volunteers. I’m amazed at the sheer numbers of volunteers and the quality of the volunteer wrangling. I’m pulling my first ever volunteer shift working an actual venue tonight. I’m glad I’m starting with a smaller, single-stage venue (the Mixed Blood).