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FESTIVAL REVIEW
THANKS TO THE VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL VOLUNTEERS
AND STAFF FOR THEIR IMMENSE CONTRIBUTION TO THE FESTIVAL! FOR SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION AND OPPORTUNITIES, PLEASE CONTACT Gareth Duncan Director of Sponsorship and Development gareth@vancouverfringe.com
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PHOTOS BY Gaelan Beatty Anita Lee Michael Sider Nicola Sznajder Clayton Wong MyCity Photos
ILLUSTRATIONS BY Zuzia Juszkiewicz
TABLE OF CONTENTS 04
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30 YEARS OF FRINGE
THANKS PARTNERS
WHY SPONSOR?
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MARKETING INITIATIVES
OPENING NIGHT
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT FRINGE-FOR-ALL
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MENTORSHIP AT THE FRINGE
FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES AND PARTNERSHIPS
ST. AMBROISE FRINGE BAR & THE BAREFOOT WINE & BUBBLY STAGE
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ARTIST’S CABARET
FRINGE AWARDS NIGHT
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
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30 YEARS OF FRINGE This year is our 30th Anniversary. But despite loving the Fringe, I hate anniversaries. Like parades and Hallmark holidays, I find anniversaries forced At their worst, they lack true meaning—the exact opposite of the Fringe! In our 29th year, staff and board members asked, “What are we going to do to celebrate our anniversary?” I had visions of parties that would take too much time to organize that no one would attend—events that would pale in comparison to the natural awesomeness of the Festival. I avoided the issue as long as I could. One day, our Director of Development suggested we sell a 30-show pass as a celebratory initiative. We’d only ever sold a 10-show pass before—our ever popular Frequent Fringer Card. A 30-show pass was so absurd that it fit perfectly with the Fringe spirit! What better way to celebrate than to give our audience a means to gorge on theatre and a badge around their necks to show their enthusiasm? The Fringe is an expression of people’s passion for theatre, so our celebration should incorporate ways for people to show their exuberance. My distaste for anniversaries buckled and we began planning some simple ways to commemorate our impressive history. And so we reveled in the best way possible—as a natural extension of our love for the Fringe.
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We kicked off the celebrations with a wonderful array of toasts at our Opening Night Party. Many artists and people who have contributed to the Fringe during our 30 years said “cheers” to the Festival, including Studio 58’s Artistic Director, Kathryn Shaw, who was called “theatre royalty” by Shameless Hussy’s founder, Deb Pickman in her own toast. Kathryn saluted Fringe founder Joanna Maratta, thanking Joanna for putting up with her shenanigans in the Fringe’s early years (she constantly broke the rules, packing more people into a tiny theatre). To explain how she got all her acting and self-producing chops as a Fringe artist, Deb Pickman said her “ovaries grew 10 sizes!” This is how one ought to celebrate an anniversary— through real memories about how something has changed your life.
2014 AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS Attendance
Attendance 40,000+ Artists 200+
Volunteers 500+ Staff 55
Social Media 20,000+ Recipients
We also celebrated by making fantastic new memories. I can’t remember a previous Festival with such a positive buzz. Special memories include leading the audience in singing “my Fringe, good night” to the tune of “Irene, Good Night” at our closing ceremonies and the Artists’ Cabaret that ended in a “zombie apocalypse” sketch where the entire audience danced to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” while throwing toilet paper! I’ll never forget watching Greenland on the historic tugboat, the S.S. Master, while crammed into the galley with local actor Billy Marchenski, twinkling his eyes and tinkling the ice cubes in his whiskey glass as he began to weave a tragic tale of loss and grief. On that same evening I walked out under the stars and socialized with a community of Fringe revelers at the Fringe Bar. These are just a few of many small memories that I will cherish in years to come. It was a real celebration. And it just happened. I didn’t have to be worried that its events would be false or insincere. We planned some of them and others were informal. We were loved and we loved back. That’s what real anniversaries are all about. Happy Anniversary, my dear Fringe. I look forward to celebrating your 35th—maybe we’ll have a parade! —David Jordan, Executive Director
6,000+ Fans
8,600+ Folowers
Age
<18 1%
19–25 13%
26–35 23%
36–45 17%
46–55 15%
56–65 23%
65< 9%
N/A 7%
Gender
65%
33%
2%
Income Below $20,000
25%
$20,000 to $40,000
18%
$40,000 to $60,000
13%
$60,000 to $80,000
6%
Over $80,000
14%
Rather not say
25%
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THANKS
PARTNERS! Our sponsors help us take the Festival to levels we just couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach without them! Strategic cash and in kind support from returning and new Partners take us from being a great Festival to an unparalleled one that is especially memorable. Whether it was at the Fringe Bar, the Opening Night, the Fringe-For-All, special VIP events, in the Volunteer Centre, or Festival-wide through a number of initiatives, you make the difference! We extend a huge welcome back to our returning sponsors: CMHC Granville Island, the Georgia Straight, car2go, CTV, McAuslan-St. Ambroise, Saint Bernadine Communications, The Peak, Camino, Speedpro Imaging, G Adventures, AGRO CafĂŠ, RBC Foundation, Blenz Coffee, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Motorino, Dockside Restaurant, The Great Jamaican, My City Photos, PrintPrint.ca, The Keg, and Olla Urban Flower Project. With so many combined years backing the Festival, you form a key pillar of our success and we thank you for joining us once again! Our new Partners were no slackers, either, providing everything from crucial Volunteer Department backing and essential VIP libations and cocktails, to live music and Opening Night food and floral support. Enormous thanks to: Shear Comfort for helping make it a banner 30th year for volunteers, to The Liberty Distillery for making our VIP events extra classy, to BeatRoute Magazine for helping with Fringe Bar musical hype, and to Boo La La for dressing our marketing campaign models. A special shout out to The Keg Granville Island and Olla Urban Flower Project for yet another Opening Night folks are still talking about!
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WHY SPONSOR? Businesses like yours form a key part of the success and growth of the Festival, enabling the Fringe to take the Festival to the next level. As the Fringe adds to its audience base and enhances their experiences, new and renewed strategic partnerships with sponsors play an indispensable role. In turn, when companies sponsor the Fringe, they reap the benefits of associating themselves with a high profile event while developing a meaningful relationship with our large and diverse audience. With an attendance of well over 40,000 and an additional 350,000 Granville Island visitors during the Fringe month of September, the extent of your reach can be huge! We invite you to become a Fringe sponsor. We pride ourselves on tailoring sponsor relationships to embrace each Partner’s unique vision and goals. To give you a sense of what is possible, here are some highlights of what you, your company, and your own VIPs can enjoy.
TAILOR-MADE SPONSORSHIPS MAY INCLUDE
E xclusive venue or event co-branding with the Fringe and associated marketing
C ategory exclusivity
Site activations/presence (e.g., the Fringe Bar; Box Office Hub; within events)
Sampling or branded product/merchandise distribution (in addition to or as part of site activations)
Venue naming rights and curtain speech recognition
Festival-wide and Pick of the Fringe curtain speech recognition
P rofile at our Opening Night and other special events, with podium recognition and other associated marketing
E-newsletter feature article (20,000+ recipients) and/or advertising
Contest opportunities
Intentional, structured social media co-promotion (6,000+ Facebook Likes & 8,600+ Twitter followers)
M icro-activations with related advertising
P roduct/Services endorsements
T ickets to Opening Night, Pick of the Fringe, and special events
ALL SPONSORS ENJOY
L ogo placement in Festival Program Guide, on Partner Recognition Boards, website, and in select print ads and posters
Social media interaction
Advertising in Festival Program Guide (30,000 printed; up to 60,000 online visits)
T ickets to Mainstage performances
Invites to VIP and Sponsor meet and greet events
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MARKETING INITIATIVES It was a record-breaking year, and there is still a celebratory feeling flowing around the Fringe Festival office. We broke every record! Total attendance reached 40,479, there were 106 sold-out performances, and artist revenue increased for yet another year, breaking records for total and average incomes for artists. Our friends at St. Bernadine Mission Communications took their sponsorship to a new level by developing our campaign this year around the tagline “See It All.” This phrase captures the volume and variety of shows available at the Festival. The tagline is also a nod to the tight-knit community of seasoned Fringers who, from apocalyptic clowns to improvised musicals, have truly “seen it all.” We recruited some of our favourite Fringe artists to be our models, decked them out in costumes courtesy of Boo La La, and had a fun photoshoot at Pinter Creative Studio. The campaign received more exposure than ever before. We printed 30,000 Program Guides, and expanded our distribution network into more locations than ever before, in particular, strengthening our presence in Burnaby, Surrey, and Richmond. Online reads of the Program Guide increased 18% over 2013. The campaign was also prevalent in the Georgia Straight, in transit shelters all over the city, on digital screens at Blenz Coffee locations (our distribution partner sponsor), and in other magazines and newspapers. We also produced three 30-second commercials that ran on CTV Vancouver. If you didn’t catch them, check them out online at youtube.com/VancouverFringe.
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We continued to see strong growth on our social media channels this year. Our Facebook audience grew by 13% to 6,000+ fans, and our Twitter following grew by an amazing 62% to 8,600+ followers! For the second year in a row, Stratford Festival Reviews deemed us the King of Fringe social media, with the highest Klout score among all Canadian Fringe Festivals. The Fringe newsletter continues to be a hugely valuable communications tool for us and our sponsor Partners, with its following of 20,000+ loyal email subscribers. In addition, the number of unique visitors to our website was up 66% over last year, reaching over 120,000 unique users. The Fringe dominated the media landscape in September with cover stories in the Georgia Straight, the WestEnder, and Xtra! Vancouver; spreads in the Vancouver Sun and the Province; as well as spots on TV, radio, and multiple blog sites—equaling upwards of $140,000 of advertising space—ensuring that everyone knew the Fringe was on.
FESTIVAL HUB During the daytime hours, no other place announces so loudly to the world that something BIG is happening like the Festival Hub does! Located on Granville Island between two Festival Mainstages, this bustling outdoor area is really the first real welcome to Festival goers. The Festival Hub has the natural draw of the Box Office and the Information Centre. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also where Fringe artists do much of their daytime promotion next to a yearly-changing DIY entertainment space. This popular location offers Fringers the opportunity to play cards, board games, or foosball. They can explore the performances they might want to check out, meet each other, or just hang out in between shows and, often, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the place to meet Fringe artists. The Hub is home to the Raffle Centre, where Raffle sponsors promote their support. More generally, it is the perfect setting for other sponsors to tie their brand to the excitement happening all around!
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OPENING NIGHT We began the 2014 Festival at Performance Works with the Opening Night: 30th Birthday Bash fundraiser! In a re-worked version of our signature yearly fundraiser, we hosted a two-part celebration of the past, present, and future of the Festival. Beginning with a $100-ticket reception, VIP guests mingled with each other and Fringe artists and alumni including a handful who toasted the Fringe’s 30 years of Festival making! Partners, Dockside Restaurant, The Keg Steakhouse & Bar (Granville Island), and La Siembra (Camino), provided scrumptious hors d’oeuvres and treats, while libations from McAuslan Brewing, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, The Liberty Distillery, and The Great Jamaican lubricated the party! My City Photos and Olla Urban Flower Project helped give the event a perfect mix of silly fun and classy elegance. The reception ended with a welcome to the Festival from CTV’s Marke Driesschen. Then guests enjoyed a one-off performance by the oneand-only “Fringe god,” TJ Dawe, as he presented the Vancouver premiere of his new work, Marathon! Part two of the evening saw an entirely different and lower-priced event occupy the same location. Hundreds of fans joined guests who remained from the VIP reception to revel in live tunes from Seattlebased bluegrass rockers, The Cave Singers and local opening act, The Nautical Miles. The music ramped up the party and completed it as the perfect start to the 30th Festival!
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THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT
FRINGE-FOR-ALL It’s likely impossible to see every one of the 90 to 100 Festival Artists that mount performances each year. For the fourth year, we helped Fringers meet this challenge on the first night of the Festival with this sampling of up to half of the Festival’s shows—each limited to only two minutes! This first special event of the Festival always sells out and is a very successful fundraiser, injecting the Festival with just the right amount of frenetic energy to sustain the crowds over the next 11 days!
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MENTORSHIP
AT THE FRINGE The Fringe is a place for learning. Staff, volunteers, and artists are all situated to challenge themselves to learn and to teach others—informally and formally throughout our organization. This was the fourth year for our flagship mentorship program, Fringe Onsite. Led by The Only Animal, Vancouver’s premiere site-specific theatre company, Onsite gave artists the chance to develop skills in producing site-specific theatre. Now well-established, this program saw a new chapter for the Fringe in which we actively partake in the creation of new work to be presented at the Festival. We have been so impressed by the impact of Onsite, we created a new program which also features mentorship. Designed to make more room for drama in the Festival, the Dramatic Works Series connected participating companies with established actor, director, and writer Scott Bellis as their mentor. Scott, a regular on the stage at the Arts Club and Bard on the Beach, helped the artists tackle the challenges in their chosen texts. Dramatic Works Series artists appreciated being able to tackle material they would not normally have chosen to mount and we look forward to continuing this mentorship program. The Royal Bank of Canada’s Emerging Artists Project maintained its support for the Onsite Program. The Dramatic Works Series was inspired by and supported by the Lochmaddy Foundation. These unique programs provide excellent, high-profile opportunities for sponsor support.
The Vancouver Fringe has offered me an amazing, supportive, positive place to leave my fear of producing in the dust. It’s a stepping stone to producing “in the real world,” but you still have to hustle and figure it all out. The Fringe offered me a place to learn, fail, question, and eventually succeed in producing a show for the Dramatic Works Series without feeling like I might fall flat on my face. I was set up for success by the staff and the Festival as a whole. I have finished this whole process feeling accomplished as a producer and artistically fulfilled as an actor. I can’t wait to do more! —Liz Kirkland, Dramatic Works Series artist, The Good of the Sun
Our other new mentorship program was attached to the BC Touring Council Award. Veteran touring artist Julia Mackey mentored winner Chase Padgett before he showcased 6 Guitars at the BC regional showcase, Pacific Contact. The mentorship was invaluable, allowing Chase to accelerate his learning about touring outside the Fringe circuit. Chase has gone on to showcase his work across the country. Moving forward, we are working on a new version of Onsite for the 2015 Festival, called dareU that will work with youth. Using augmented reality technology to map personal stories onto local spaces with smartphones, dareU will allow budding film makers to situate mini-movies into a Festival location. dareU promises to offer the freshest Fringe experience from the greenest of artists! The Fringe has long been a cornerstone of development for emerging artists and we’re excited to be taking that role to a new level by creating an opportunity for teens.
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FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES AND PARTNERSHIPS As you know, the Vancouver Fringe Festival is a registered charitable organization and we have cultivated a comprehensive and mature suite of fundraising programs over the years. Our Festival and year-round fundraising efforts continue to grow and reap rewards—for the Fringe’s bottom line and for the many sponsors who partner with us on those efforts, especially the high-profile Festival-time initiatives. The increased returns and solid donor retention rates we see reveal that the Fringe audience is deeply invested in the charitable aspect of the Fringe, to the point of virtually taking ownership over the Festival. As one of the fastest growing and most visible areas of Festival sponsorship, fundraising activities and programs offer some of the best opportunities for businesses to connect with our growing numbers of loyal audience, artists, and volunteers. Whether the involvement is direct, through product sampling and distribution, or behind-the-scenes and more indirect, sponsor support for Fringe fundraising advances our mutual goals and engages the Fringe community in a fun and meaningful way.
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MAJOR SPONSOR INVOLVEMENT AND IMPACTS We promote the Festival-wide raffle extensively in the run up to and during the Festival and prominently feature the sponsors who directly support it: G Adventures, The Great Jamaican, Motorino, and La Siembra (Camino). Additionally, for the fourth year, Camino products formed a cornerstone of Festival-time fundraising efforts, with a presence at both outdoor “hubs” and at special events. Meanwhile, our signature annual fundraiser, the Opening Night, benefited greatly from the products and services of CTV, Dockside Restaurant, The Keg Steakhouse & Bar (Granville Island), McAuslan, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, The Liberty Distillery, My City Photos, Olla Urban Flower Project, and The Great Jamaican. Each year, our prolific promotion of these initiatives increases the presence and reach of all of these Partners.
OTHER FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES AND PARTNERSHIP/IN-KIND OPPORTUNITIES Spring for the Fringe Our yearly fundraising in late spring—an excellent opportunity to promote your brand and its support for the Fringe community through a matching gift. Fringe Bar Outdoor Hub Camino, The Great Jamaican, My City Photos, McAuslan/St. Ambroise, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, car2go, and The PEAK have shown the great potential for corporate presence here. Box Office/Info Centre Outdoor Hub car2go, The Great Jamaican, Motorino, G Adventures, and Camino all had significant presence here. Raffle In kind finanical support opportunities for solid multi-channel Festival-wide exposure, including in-person promotion and product experience; G Adventures, The Great Jamaican, Motorino, and La Siembra benefitted this year. Flaunt Your Fringe Ticket purchase top-up donation opportunity to match and, therefore, encourage small donations (high visibility with over 10,000 advance tickets purchased). Pick Plus This addition to the Festival presents a curated series—the best of Fringe from Vancouver and around North America—and draws an audience who want to see the cream of the crop. Its longer marketing period offers ideal exposure for a sponsor Partner. Fringe Presents The Fringe continues to expand our programming to the “off-season” (late winter, spring, and summer) under the banner of this series. As with the Pick Plus series, sponsors can gain from additional marketing and the branding of “bonus” Fringe experiences. Year-round VIP Stewardship Events Ranging from receptions to special insider opportunities: Barefoot Wine & Bubbly and The Liberty Distillery benefitted this year. VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL
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ST. AMBROISE FRINGE BAR & THE BAREFOOT WINE & BUBBLY STAGE Given the common perception that theatre mostly occurs in darkened rooms without much interaction between audience members, one of the more surprising aspects of the Festival is its social side. Indeed, a strong sense of a self-made community exists amongst Fringers, new and experienced alike. The evidence of this community is nowhere more apparent than at the St. Ambroise Fringe Bar. Each evening this singular Vancouver indoor-outdoor hotspot hosts local up-and-coming bands and DJs on the Barefoot Wine & Bubbly Stage and provides a meeting place for audiences, artists, volunteers, and curious non-Fringers who find the musical talent and the growing reputation of the “scene” irresistible. This year, again, record attendance and sales made this outdoor “Fringe Bar Hub” the place to be every night! St. Ambroise/McAuslan and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly are key product supporters, while six-year sponsor and Fringe Bar venue host, AGRO Café, provides a range of menu items to hungry Fringers. Meanwhile, the Fringe Bar Hub also houses nightly food trucks and a “Food Truck Feast” with multiple trucks on weekends. Overall, the Fringe Bar Hub is the nightly gathering place and heart of the Festival, where sponsors have unique opportunities to be present in the Hub to support and enhance the Festival.
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This year, site activations included free cocktail samples from The Great Jamaican, chocolate samples from Camino to support fundraising, the very popular interactive photobooth from My City Photos, and raffle prize support from G Adventures, Motorino, The Great Jamaican, and Camino. The PEAK also showed up in person and Speedpro Imaging signs were everywhere, while BeatRoute Magazine provided online music support for the live music and DJs.
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ARTISTS’ CABARET
The Vancouver Fringe Festival is a completely unique entity. Part of what makes it so is a handful of one-off special events. None of these is as unusual and distinctive as the Artists’ Cabaret on the Festival’s final Saturday! Local and touring artists who’ve come to know each other from touring the Fringe Festival circuit together titillate a well-Fringed, full house with their version of a talent show that has actual talent! The everenthusiastic crowd participates by lighting the action with flashlights, wherever in the room it arises, and ends up contributing thousands to the Fringe in this incomparable fundraiser.
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FRINGE AWARDS NIGHT Once again, this final special event of the Festival was the standingroom only place to be to officially close off the 30th Anniversary Festival! Local improv comedians led us through the, at times nailbiting, but mostly hilarious evening. With them, we discovered the winners of this year’s Awards, including the new Artistic Risk Award, the Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award, and the Public Market Pick of the Fringe, whose shows were held over after the Festival. The event closed with the drawing of the winning tickets for the Festival-wide Win It All Raffle! Sponsors G Adventures, Motorino, The Great Jamaican, and Camino provided the prizes: a chocolate gift basket (with an all-access pass for two to the 2015 Fringe Festival), an electric bicycle, an electric scooter, and the grand prize, a nine-day adventure travel package for two to Macchu Pichu and the surrounding sites! For a fourth straight year, the Fringe and Fringe Artists collaborated with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. Entrance to the Awards Night was by cash donation to the Food Bank and Fringe Artists donated portions of their ticket sales during the Festival. Together, our donations allowed the Food Bank to purchase almost $6,000 in food for Vancouverites!
Public Market Pick of the Fringe and Pick Plus
Many Fringers are unable to see all the hot shows of the Festival and look forward to their holdover runs in the week following the Festival in the Public Market Pick of the Fringe. We add even more value to this “best of the Fringe” bonus with specially-chosen performances that did not appear in this year’s Festival—known as the Pick Plus. Every year, this popular and currently unsponsored mini-Festival includes past Fringe favourites and new works by well-known Fringe Artists. This year was no exception and audience numbers eclipsed past years!
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PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 2015 will be a massive year for the Fringe. We will launch a year-round marketing initiative called Theatre Wire. We will also transition to new box office software which will both support Theatre Wire and revolutionize the way we sell tickets for the Festival. We look forward to partnering with organizations that will help us to define this new and exciting future!
Our Vision Theatre for Everyone
Our Mission To celebrate theatre and create opportunities for preforming artists