Bury Fringe

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January 12, 2010

More information about the Fringe Open Day, this Saturday 16th January.

Filed under: Alternative, Entertainment, Festivals, Performing Arts, Public Events, Uncategorized, art, comedy, dance, music, theatre — Tags: act, amateur, Anglia, animate, animation, art, artist, band, bury st edmunds, cabaret, comedy, community, create, creativity, dance, design, display, drama, East, event, exciting, festival, film, Fringe, fun, gallery, gig, graphic, inspire, installation, laugh, magic, mime, music, performance, performers, performing, play, production, professional, script, sculpture, show, stage, street, student, theatre, variety, venue, visual, writer, writing, you — Bury Fringe Festival @ 1:14 pm

Hey again,

I’ve spent much of this morning trying again to make contact with local schools to invite them to take part and contribute to the Fringe, and to make sure that staff and pupils know about our Open Days. It’s not the fastest process, so if any of you want to mention it when dropping off or collecting children and help spread the word, we’d be very grateful!

One thing I’m being asked about is musicians being able to audition at the Open Days…in theory, yes, we can give your songs a listen. BUT, we’re not setting up a PA or anything, as we don’t want to disrupt the rest of Benson Blakes, and anyway, it’s an awful lot of kit and kerfuffle when we’re not sure how many people will show up! That said, we will be more than happy to listen to unamplified/acoustic performances, or just bring along a CD/DVD, or info on where we can find your tracks online. (So please, don’t go lugging along your amps, drumkits and groupies!)

We would like to see audition pieces from actors, comedians, dancers etc, to give us an idea of style and compatibility with projects, and visual artists are encouraged to bring along their portfolio. If you’re not sure about what to bring or do to demonstrate your talents, get in touch ahead of the day, or come along and see us on the 16th, as you can always come back with more on the 30th.

We may well take video of auditions for reference purposes, and with permission from the performers may use footage for Fringe publicity purposes. We won’t publish anything without asking first though!

Please feel free to email or call me with any questions about the Open Days. It’s the first time we’ve used this method for spreading the word, and as always, input from everyone in general is very welcome. We’re having a team meeting this evening to discuss things ahead of Saturday, so there may be more updates to come tomorrow.

One last thing – we’ve amended section 3 on our FAQs page with some updated information on our financial position as festival organisers. The change should not affect anyone bringing a ‘ready-to-go’ event to the programme, but may apply in other situations.

Thanks for reading, taking an interest and supporting the Fringe!

Cheers,

Claire x

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January 10, 2010

What’s new with the Fringe so far in 2010…?

Filed under: Alternative, Entertainment, Festivals, Performing Arts, Public Events, Uncategorized, art, comedy, dance, music, theatre — Tags: act, amateur, Anglia, animate, animation, art, artist, band, bury st edmunds, cabaret, comedy, community, create, creativity, dance, design, display, drama, East, event, exciting, festival, film, Fringe, fun, gallery, gig, graphic, inspire, laugh, local press, magic, media, mime, music, original, performance, performers, performing, premiere, production, professional, public, radio, script, show, stage, street, student, theatre, variety, venue, visual, writer, writing, you — Bury Fringe Festival @ 4:10 pm

Hello again!

Hope you’re all having a great 2010 so far and are filled with impish glee at our snow-covered world,and are not glum and disheartened by dodgy roads and troublesome school closures.

January has seen the Fringe get some long-awaited and much appreciated press coverage at last, so fingers crossed people will hear about our Open Days on Saturday 16th and 30th January BEFORE they happen, after all!! (It was a little worrying there for a while.) And a great big thank you goes to Stephen Foster on BBC Radio Suffolk for letting me wiffle on about the Fringe during his drivetime show in December. You can hear it here: Fringe interview BBC Radio Suffolk Dec 2009.

Further thanks go to Roundabout Magazine (www.roundaboutsuffolk.co.uk) for their coverage and support, and also Grapevine (www.grapevineweb.co.uk), Ipswich 24 (www.ipswich24.co.uk) and the East Anglian Daily Times who are all backing us and helping spread the word – thanks chaps! Plus, you can read about us on page 5 of this week’s Bury Free Press.

All the positive publicity means interest is really picking up, with more and more people getting in touch to give their ideas and suggestions for events to submit to the Fringe. But we don’t have enough yet, so please, keep it coming! We’re hoping to meet lots of people during our Open Days, so feel free to drop into Benson Blakes and say hi, show us your act or idea, introduce your friends to us, offer your help or resources, and generally get involved. In particular, I’m hoping there may be one or two writers out there who will venture out to make themselves known to us, as we would love to have some original works created especially for the Fringe, to be premiered during the fortnight. Know anyone who might be good for that? Give ‘em a nudge from us…

As suggested in my very first blog, all you arty types are invited to create your own version of our ’stickman’ logo, and we’ll circulate the best on our website so you can show off your talents. In addition, I’m also now inviting you to come up with humourous animations, showing a ‘day in the life’ of our trusty little logo mascots – let your imaginations run riot, and entertain us! Whether you make a traditional flipbook or fancy something a bit more sophisticated like this online software at http://www.aniboom.com/shapeshiftermain/?ref=/Footer/, I would LOVE to see what you can come up with, and we’ll share them on our website and Youtube channel (our username is ‘BuryFringe’). Go on, give it a go, it’s FUN!!

Now then, one last thing before I sign off for today. Have you ever fancied learning the art of street mime? You know, that thing where you delight and terrorise your audience in equal part, while showing off your comedic skills (and maybe getting a few quid thrown at you for good measure)? I was contacted yesterday by a very lovely lady who herself is a talented and popular street mime artist. She has offered to train up 5 or 6 lucky applicants ahead of the festival, where they will then get to perform and hone their craft in front of our no-doubt intrigued townsfolk. There may well be a competitive element involved, so this could be your big chance to learn a brand new art form and make a name for yourself in this unusual field. If you’d like to be considered for this, please drop me a line at claire@buryfringe.com, letting me know what experience you have in the performing arts (if any, it’s not essential), a brief description of yourself, both personality and appearance-wise, and why you would like to learn how to become a street mime. This is a unique opportunity, so go for it!

So, I must away now, back to my Inbox and to-do list. Have a great week, and we’ll see you at Benson Blakes on Saturday!

Claire

PS Forgot to mention – we’re on Google Wave, and keen to natter in real time about ideas and plans for all things Fringe. Look us up under ‘Bury Fringe Festival’, and don’t worry if you’re not on Wave yet, we have over 50 invitations to give away! Drop us an email and we’ll get you signed up. Come and share your thoughts and join the gang :0) x

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