2015 Fringe Festival Review

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FESTIVAL REVIEW

PHOTOS BYAbel Goeun LeeAlex Sirbu Amar MenonChuck Buckley PhotographyClayton Wong PhotographyDeborah KisielItzel CastilloJanmie GunawardenaJon Vincent Lucy LopezLukas MccormickMyCity PhotosPaul DuchartRosemarie Gresham

FOR SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION AND OPPORTUNITIES, PLEASE CONTACTGareth DuncanDirector of Sponsorship and [email protected]

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Executive Directors Message

Thanks Partners

Why Sponsor?

Marketing Initiatives

Opening Night

The Georgia Straight

Fringe-For-All

Mentorship at the Fringe

Fundraising Initiatives

and Partnerships

Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar

and the Barefoot Wine

& Bubbly Stage

Artists Cabaret

Fringe Awards Night

Plans for the Future

2 VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL

Thanks to the Vancouver Fr inge Festival volunteers and staf f for their immense contr ibution to the Festival !

VANCOUVERFRINGE.COM 3

This past Festival was my 10th as Executive Director. It has been my privilege and honour to serve as the leader of the Fringe this long and I was overwhelmed by the recognition from the community and our board of directors. After 10 years, I admit, the years blur together! They blur in a good way. The highlights and memories are all pasted together with the warm fuzzy recollection of celebratory fun that is always present at the Fringe. With this strong sense of tradition, sometimes it feels like we could never, or may never, want to change our ways! But part of leading the Fringe is recognizing that we mustnt become rigid in our approaches to theatre or to businessindeed it is our flexibility and openness that are our core strengths. 2015 gave us lots of change.

We started a new play reading series for women playwrights, Advance Theatre: New Plays by Women, which regularly packed out the theatre. We felt a great deal of pride in this important initiative. A recent study showed that less than 30% of working playwrights in Canada are women. The Fringe has always been a place where these statistics are more balanced, but Advance Theatre allowed us to enshrine this strength in our program. We built this initiative with local stars of the independent theatre scene (and alumna of the Fringe) Diane Brown and her company Ruby Slippers Theatre.

In DAREU! we used a technology based augmented reality theatre setting in which a cohort of emerging theatre creators were mentored in the new form. The results were a fantastic display of risk taking, which was our goal in evolving this partnership with our long time site-specific theatre partner The Only Animal. At times the short pieces felt like film, at others like art pieces, and always like theatre as audience members were rooted in the performance place and connected to each other as simultaneous viewers.

On the back end of things we successfully launched new ticketing softwarewhich was, as we were hoping boring! And by boring I mean that the transition was smooth. Our staff and volunteers embraced implementing this sea change in our single largest operational procedurethe box office. For the first time ever, we sold tickets in real time at the door of more than 20 different venues simultaneously. Using our new iPad system we reduced wait times for patrons as well as staff and volunteer time on the back end.

Change is difficult, but I am so proud that our organization embraces new things as much as we enjoy our traditions. We know that technological and social innovation will shape our future. Big thanks to all our corporate, artistic, and community partners in taking the Fringe forward.

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Fringefully, David Jordan, Executive Director

2015


HOUSEHOLD INCOME

59% 39% 1%

Attendance 42,000+

22,000+ Recipients

6,500+ Fans

9,700+ Folowers

6510%

Below $30,000

26%

15%

23%

16%

1%

19%

$30,000 to $50,000

$50,001 to $100,000

$100,001 to $250,000

Over $250,000

Rather Not Say

GENDER

AGE

EDUCATION

High School

10%

16%

46%

25%

3%

Trade School /2-year degree

Bachelors Degree

Masters or PhD

Rather Not Say

2015 AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS

SOCIAL MEDIA

*1% Would Rather Not Say


THANKS PARTNERS!Our sponsors help us take the Festival to levels we just couldnt 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 Big Rock Brewery 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: our hosts, CMHC Granville Island, the Georgia Straight, car2go, Saint Bernadine Communications, The PEAK, G Adventures, RBC Foundation, Blenz Coffee, Shear Comfort,

Speedpro Imaging, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Motorino, Dockside Restaurant, Camino, The Liberty Distillery, My City Photos, PrintPrint.ca, BeatRoute Magazine, 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 the crucial fuel that helps run the social side of the Festival (Big Rock Brewery), to helping us store the bones of some of our operations (Cubeit Portable Storage), to exquisite Opening Night appetizers (Emelles Catering)!

To all our partners: Thanks! We simply couldnt do it without you!


2015

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 stage. 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 you sponsor the Fringe, you reap the benefits of associating your company with the Best Performing Arts Festival as voted by Georgia Straight readers year after year while developing a meaningful relationship with our large and diverse audience. With extensive social and print media exposure, 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 Partners unique vision and goals. To give you a sense of what is possible, here are some highlights of what you, your company, and its VIPs can enjoy.

BECOME A SPONSOR

TAILOR-MADE SPONSORSHIPS MAY INCLUDE

Exclusive venue or event co-branding with the Fringe and associated marketing

Category 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 and event titling and curtain speech recognition

Festival-wide and/or Pick of the Fringe/Pick Plus curtain speech recognition

Profile at our Opening Night and other special events, with podium recognition and other associated marketing

E-newsletter feature article (22,000+ recipients) and/or advertising

Contest opportunities Structured social media co-promotion (6,500+

Facebook Likes & 9,700+ Twitter followers) Micro-activations with related advertising Product/Services endorsements Tickets to Opening Night, Pick of the Fringe, and

special events

ALL SPONSORS ENjOY

Logo 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

(25,000 printed; over 60,000 online visits) Tickets to Mainstage performances


2015

MARKETING INITIATIVESThe Fringes attendance continues to grow year after year with more than 42,000 attendees seeing theatre shows, visiting the Fringe Bar, and attending special eventsa testament to the Fringes role as Vancouvers final summer party and the kick off to the fall arts season.

St. Bernadine Mission Communications worked to promote the celebratory nature of the Fringe in creating 2015s Program Guide cover and main marketing image. As Andrew Samuel of St. Bernadine said, There are no bounds to the artists or the shows that appear ... We thought about what that meant and how we could articulate that idea quickly and iconically. Who are two polar opposite characters and what would they look like if they came together to celebrate? Historically and comedically, the wolf and the sheep articulated this difference. They found illustrator Madison Tuff, whose characters epitomized the nature of the Festival.

The wolf and sheep made their way into advertisements in the Georgia Straight, the Westender, and other publications, on digital screens at Blenz Coffee locations (our distribution

partner sponsor), as well as posters and advertisements around town reaching a potential audience of well over 750,000. One pair of volunteers loved the characters so much that they even completed their shifts in wolf and sheep costumes!

In this 31st year, the Fringe Festival dominated Vancouvers media landscape. The popular Vancouver theatre blog, Vancouver Presents, ran daily interviews with artists in the 30 days leading up to the Festival, the Vancouver Sun featured 15 local shows with exclusive video footage, the Festival was featured in multicultural and student media across metro Vancouver, and the Fringe graced the covers of the Georgia Straight, the Westender, the Vancouver Courier, and BeatRoute Magazineequaling a minumum of $140,000 in advertising space.

The Fringes e-newsletter and social media audiences continue to grow as well. More than 22,000 email subscribers are updated throughout the year while Facebook allows us to reach over 6,500 Fans and 9,700 followers keep up to date on Fringe related news via Twitter.


2015

FESTIVAL HUBThe Festival Hub is the place to start the Festival experience! This is where audience members can buy tickets, learn about the Festival and its performances, meet Festival artists, get Raffle tickets and meet some of our other sponsors, or just relax in this unique outdoor space.

This always-busy Festival node offers fantastic opportunities for Partner exposure to the thousands of Festival-goers and passers-by who walk through the space. Whether its through support for the Box Office, Information Centre, and Raffle or through specially created site activities, Partner visibility is huge. The Festival Hub presents excellent possibilities to tie your brand to the contagious buzz of the Festival.


2015

The 2015 Festival began exactly as it should, with a big party and a very special Fringe performance. We launched the 31st annual Festival with an ensemble of well-known top Fringe artists in a wonderful cabaret-style performance created specifically for this event following a stylish gathering of some of the Fringes most-engaged VIPs and artists.

This exclusive $100-ticket reception showcased many Fringe Partners, including amazing hors doeuvres from Dockside Restaurant, Emelles Catering, and The Keg Steakhouse & Bar (Granville Island). Revelers toasted each other with beer from new sponsor, Big Rock Brewery, and wine from our old friends at

Barefoot Wine & Bubbly. Meanwhile, The Liberty Distillery returned for another year, sharing their latest batches of artisanal spirits and giving us a taste of one of their specialty cocktails!

No party is complete without fun photos and great dcor and My City Photos and Olla Urban Flowers helped us enjoy both for another year. The silly pizzazz of the photo costumes combined perfectly with the elegance of orchids and other floral arrangements for the perfect mix of class and lunacy that is the Fringe!

OPENING NIGHT


2015

Since theres no humanly-possible way to see every one of the shows in a particular Festival, we offer Fringers the Georgia Straight Fringe-For-All. This rock em, sock em late-night event always sells-out. It features as many of the 100+ artists and artist groups as we can push across the stage in two hours at two minutes each.

Its also when the audience and artists hear the winners of the car2go Shows, chosen just ahead of the Festival by car2go members and co-promoted through our respective websites and social media. The Georgia Straight Fringe-For-All is a fantastic preview of the excitement to come in the following ten days and a great first night for the Festival!

THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

FRINGE-FOR-ALL


2015

The Fringe is a place for learning. Staff, volunteers, and artists are all situated to challenge themselves to learn and to teach othersinformally and formally throughout our organization. Among other impacts, the Fringe has long been a cornerstone of development for emerging artists and, more recently, weve begun creating similar, supported opportunities for youth.

Since 2011, the Fringe has partnered with The Only Animal, Vancouvers premier site-specific theatre company, to combine formal mentorship with leading-edge site-specific theatre and with funding support from the Royal Bank of Canadas Emerging Artists Project.

After four years of this flagship mentorship program, Fringe Onsite, it was time to evolve it further into something utterly unique. The continuing collaboration with The Only Animal and the Royal Bank Foundation resulted in DAREU!. This youth-focused program premiered at the 2015 Festival and featured augmented reality technology (with support from TELUS Community Foundation) used to map personal stories onto local spaces with smartphones. DAREU! allowed budding filmmakers to situate mini-movies into a Festival location and provided something very special for Fringe audiences. Artistically, DAREU! was a complete success, winning the 2015 Artistic Risk Award, and proved very popular with Fringers, too!

For the 2016 Festival, The Only Animal returns to lead the charge on this programs newest iteration: Generation Hot. The program continues its focus

THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

FRINGE-FOR-ALLMENTORSHIP AT THE FRINGE

on youth/emerging artists and site-specific works through a six-month mentorship, culminating at the Festival in September.

The positive impacts of a mentorship program on the Festival and Fringe artists inspired us to create the Dramatic Works Series and it enjoyed its second strong year this past Festival. Supported by the Lochmaddy Foundation, the series also employs mentorship and specific application criteria to help ensure that the Festival includes high-quality performances of previously published dramatic works. The Dramatic Works Series will return in the 2016 Festival with renewed funding from the Lochmaddy Foundation.

Playwrights Theatre Centre (PTC) also works with the Fringe to mentor an emerging playwright through the annual Fringe New Play Prize. The winning submission receives a Mainstage spot in the following Festival as well as dramaturgical support from PTCs Dramaturg, Kathleen Flaherty, in the year leading up to the production hitting the Fringe stage.

The Fringe also partners with the BC Touring Council. The winner of the annual BC Touring Council Award receives mentorship from an experienced touring artist prior to presenting their work at Pacific Contact, BCs regional touring showcase.


2015

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 rewardsfor the Fringes 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 fundraising advances mutual goals and engages the Fringe community meaningfully.

FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES AND PARTNERSHIPS

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, Motorino, and La Siembra (Camino). Additionally, for the fifth 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 Dockside Restaurant, Emelles Catering, The Keg Steakhouse & Bar (Granville Island), Big Rock Brewery, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, The Liberty Distillery, My City Photos, and Olla Urban Flower Project. Each year, our prolific promotion of these initiatives increases the presence and reach of all of these Partners.

MAjOR SPONSOR INVOLVEMENT AND IMPACTS


2015

OTHER FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES AND PARTNERSHIP/IN-KIND OPPORTUNITIES

Spring for the FringeOur yearly fundraising in late springan excellent opportunity to promote your brand and its support for the Fringe community through a matching gift or employee matching program.

Fringe Bar Outdoor Hub Big Rock Brewery, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, car2go, the PEAK, My City Photos, Camino, and Cubeit Portable Storage have shown the great potential for corporate presence here. More opportunities await, including the Food Truck Feast area.

Box Office/Info Centre Outdoor Hub car2go, G Adventures, Motorino, Camino, and Cubeit Portable Storage all had significant presence here.

RaffleIn-kind opportunity for solid multi-channel Festival-wide exposure, including in-person promotion and product experience; G Adventures, Motorino, and Camino benefited this year.

Flaunt Your Fringe Ticket purchase top-up donation opportunity to match and, therefore, encourage small donations (over 10,000 advance tickets purchased).

Pick Plus This expansion to the Festival presents a curated seriesthe best of Fringe from Vancouver and around North Americaand 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; Big Rock Brewery and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly benefitted this year.


BIG ROCK BREWERY FRINGE BAR AND THE BAREFOOT WINE & BUBBLY STAGE


2015

The Festival is much, much more than simply a series of theatre performances. Its a community of theatre lovers and artists, audiences and volunteers, sponsors and funders who gather together each year in a collective effort called the Vancouver Fringe Festival. This community has a vibrant social aspect with many familiar faces and deep relationships. If its social side has a nucleus, it must be the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar and its Barefoot Wine & Bubbly Stage!

Both Partners are central to this special indoor-outdoor space that has no equal in Vancouver. The Fringe Bar springs up nightly during the run of the Festival and features live music, DJs, and one of the funnest dance spaces around. A great meeting place for audiences, artists, and volunteers, the Fringe Bar Hub is also a perfect introduction to the Festival for curious non-Fringers and fans of the bands and DJs.

This year, site activations included Big Rock Urban Brewerys new Citradelic beer on tap, free wine samples from Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, the very popular interactive photobooth from My City Photos, and Raffle prize support from G Adventures, Motorino, 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 and Cubeit Portable Storage helped us manage our operations smoothly. Of course, the Fringe Bar Hub simply would not be possible without the support of CMHC Granville Island!

The Fringe Bar Hub also houses nightly food trucks and a Food Truck Feast of several trucks on weekends. Overall, the Fringe Bar Hub is the nightly gathering place and heart of the Festival, where these and other sponsors have unique and high-profile opportunities to be present in the Hub to support and enhance the Festival.


2015

Nothing is perhaps so Fringe-y as the Artists Cabaret! Part scripted collaboration, part improvisational madness, this one-off fundraiser is something of a climax for the Festival and the Fringe touring season.

Forty or so local and touring Fringe artists whove long known each other or met during the May-to-September Fringe Festival circuit create a chaotic celebration of do-it-yourself theatre on the final Saturday of the Festival. Audience members wielding flashlights provide the only lighting and illuminate the artists wherever on stage or in the crowd they may pop up. Much anticipated each year, this penultimate night of the Festival always becomes a full house of revelry that helps support the Festival and Fringe artists.

ARTISTS CABARET


2015

FRINGE AWARDS NIGHT

ARTISTS CABARET

The Festival officially closes with the Fringe Awards Night. This very popular event is where we recognize some of the standout performances and efforts of the Festival, draw the Raffle prize winners, and reflect on another installation and epic journey through the world of the Fringe.

As in previous years, local improv comedians hosted a full house and transformed an otherwise straightforward event into its own singular Fringe show. Among the 2015 awards were the Georgia Straight Critics Choice Award, and the CMHC Granville Island Public Market Pick of the Fringe, whose shows were held over after the Festival. Other partner organizations

also participate. The Cultch, the BC Touring Council, and Playwrights Theatre Centre co-sponsored awards and prizes. Entry was by donation to Performing Arts Lodges Vancouver, who provide subsidized housing for retired artists.

The event closed with the much-anticipated Festival-wide Raffle draw, featuring Partners G Adventures, Motorino, and Camino. Prizes included a chocolate gift basket (with an all-access pass for two to the 2016 Fringe Festival), an electric bicycle, a scooter, and the Grand Prize, a nine-day adventure travel package for two to Macchu Pichu and the surrounding sites!

Public Market Pick of the Fringe and Pick PlusMany Fringers are unable to see all the hot shows at 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 years Festivalknown as the Pick Plus. Every year, this popular and currently un-sponsored mini-Festival includes past Fringe favourites and new works by well-known Fringe Artists and this year was no exception!


2015

The coming year will focus on behind the scenes work that will make sure we optimize the use of our new ticketing software to promote theatre at the Festival and year-round through our new platform, Theatre Wire. Were excited to push ourselves to achieve our newly drafted mission:

LOOKING AHEAD

Cultivating artists and audiences to create an open and vibrant independent theatre community.

2015 Fringe Festival Review

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