It’s TRUE! After some unfortunate delays caused by life and the outside world in general, we have a proper logo, and a website with actual information on it! www.buryfringe.com is your essential resource for all things, well, Bury Fringe related. There will be regular updates (she says, tempting fate) and this blog will carry full details of the most up-to-date developments, so do please keep checking back often.
The first thing I want to mention is our new logo. After experimenting with a few ideas, and realising that time and software constraints were not going to allow us the end result we were hoping for, I realised it was time once again to go back to basics. So I grabbed the roll of drawing paper from the boys’ arts and crafts box, sat down with my favourite biro and drew out the lettering. This was then scanned into Photoshop where a background was added, but it needed something more. Being as how I can’t actually draw, but was in a desperate hurry for some artwork, I came up with the idea of adding stick men. Computer drawn ones just didn’t work though, so I turned to my trusted ’stick man advisor’ Andy, who spent the next night experimenting with characters and ideas. Unfortunately, by the time we’d emailed the background, he’d printed it out and drawn on it, scanned it back in and emailed it to us again…it had rather lost some of its quality! So another evening was spent redrawing it, and what you see is the end result, and we hope you like it! I think this creation process absolutely sums up the whole Fringe ethos, pooling ideas and working together to get a great end result. BUT, as I say, I’m no graphic artist, and I can just imagine plenty of you out there with your own ideas for how we could have realised this logo. And so….da da da DAAAAAH! We’d like to invite you to submit your own ideas, and those we like will be used for a week or so as the official logo on www.buryfringe.com, with a full credit to the artist of course. All logos used will also then be available to view on an archive page. It’s an open and ongoing invite, so whether you submit something next week, or next year, it’s still valid. Just keep to the basic premise, but run with it in the direction your imagination suggests. (And keep it clean, the Fringe is a family show, y’hear?!) When you send us your artwork, let us know any details about the inspiration behind it and the way you created it, and we’ll include it on the site. In the meantime though, a round of applause for Warwick and Andy for helping get the artwork up and running :0)
So, what else have we been doing this week? Well, I had a very inspiring meeting with Catherine Hemelryk from the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, during which we discussed some of their upcoming projects and how we can include them in the Fringe. Catherine is one of the busiest and most energetic people I’ve met in a long time, and another creative person who wants to see the arts in Bury thrive and gain more recognition. One potential project discussed is to get every single person in town knitting one huge piece of fabric, so we’ll be looking for experienced knitters to encourage everyone else. If you’re interested in this, or know others who would be, please let me know (claire@buryfringe.com) and I’ll add you to our KNIT LIST (teehee). There are lots of other ideas to be discussed further though, so I’ll post here as and when more are confirmed.
The Arc shopping centre are very keen to support the Fringe, so we’re planning events to take place there. The first one semi-confirmed will be the Blue Bus, a converted VW Camper Van which transforms into a fully functioning stage, complete with PA and lights, from which some superbly talented musicians will be performing. We’re also looking for a suitable pub garden or outdoor area to hold an evening event with the Blue Bus, so if you have anywhere, give us a shout!
I’ve also been thinking about events and performances I’d love to see as part of the Fringe, but just don’t have the time to organise myself. These include children’s storytime events with narrated and partially enacted tales, ‘alternative’ Morris teams for our Mayday revels to launch the Fringe, street dance projects, educational workshops based within the artistic industries and exhibits of art from schools and community groups. Some of these I will be able to contact people to get the ball rolling hopefully, but in the meantime, if YOU fancy taking part in or organising one of these events, then contact me asap please!
As you will know by now, we want the Fringe to be all about the local community, giving everyone the chance to express and display their own talents. To this end, in addition to our logo invitation above, we would also love it if people would start their own blogs or photojournals about the Fringe. If you’re taking part, keep a record of how rehearsals are going, capture the highs and lows of your creative experience, and share as many aspects of your act or performance as you’d like. We want the audience to feel as involved and connected with the event as possible, giving them extra enjoyment and also allowing the contributing artists to promote themselves as much as possible. That said, if you’re an audience member just waiting for it to start, give us your feedback on what we’re doing so far, and please blog or submit photos as the festival begins. Submit your links to us and we’ll post them on the website for all to see; make it as interesting, colourful or humourous as you like, and watch your audience grow!
Now, I’m off to write the FAQ page for the website. Holler if you have ideas, thoughts, questions or encouragement you’d like to share – every little means SO MUCH to us!!
Ooh, before I sign off, must say a HUGE thank you to Dan Rivers, for hosting and building our website for us. We’d be a bit lost without him, so thanks Dan!!
Lots of love
xxx