Looks like it'll be Edmonton in fringe festival photo finish

It looks like Edmonton is poised to keep the title of best-selling fringe festival in Canada.

"At the moment we are 10,000 ahead of last year's sales to date," says Julian Mayne, executive director of Edmonton's Fringe Theatre Adventures. "As I look back at the historical data I see that in 2000 the Edmonton festival sold 81,000 tickets, so I would be thrilled to top that number."

Last month, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival saw its paid attendance jump almost 9,000 admissions to a record high 81,565 ticket sales. That surpassed Edmonton's 2008 paid attendance total of 77,800.

After a slow start to this year's festival due to cool, rainy weather in the Alberta capital, throngs of fringers returned last weekend. On Saturday more than 10,000 tickets were sold, the largest single day total in the festival's 28-year history. Winnipeg also set a one-day record on its opening Saturday when paid attendance topped 8,000 for the first time. Top ticket in Edmonton is $14 while Winnipeg is $9.

It won't take much for Edmonton to pass the 80,000 mark and then some.

"I think it will be close," Winnipeg's fringe executive director Chuck McEwen says about whether Edmonton will again reign as the Canadian fringe festival box-office champ. "For the next few years Edmonton and Winnipeg will be neck and neck."

Both fringe honchos believe their festivals have benefited this year from the economic doldrums.

"I believe the recession is keeping people home and the stay-vacation is in effect for both Winnipeg and Edmonton," says Mayne, who is in the fourth year at the Edmonton helm.

The Edmonton festival, boasting the theme "Stage a Revolution," wraps tomorrow and has also profited from the strong growth in the number of BYOVs (bring-your-own venues). There are 46 shows, as compared to 33 in 2008, being staged in churches, restaurants, bars, a hotel, shops, a library and a school. Winnipeg had 31 BYOVs this year.

"We maxed out in the lottery venues and artists took it upon themselves to do the BYOV route," Mayne says. "We accepted all BYOV applications this year, and some are right across the city."

McEwen was in Edmonton last weekend to monitor how they do things.

"It's good to see how they operate," says McEwen. "We're looking a lot at their outdoor site. Our outdoor site is good but we probably could use it a bit more effectively to bring more first-timers to the festival."

Edmonton is still by far a bigger event with about 500,000 people turning out on the outdoor site. Last month attendance at the MTS Outdoor Stage in Old Market Square dipped to 70,000 from last year's total of 88,000.

Perhaps, many of the Edmonton fringe festival patrons this week are tourists lured by the $400,000 Ottawa gave it to woo out-of-towners. The cash, administered through the federal Department of Small Business and Tourism, is part of the Conservative government's new two-year, $100-million program for Canada's "marquee festivals" to enhance Canadian tourism during the economic slowdown.

The event was one of eight high-profile Canadian festivals (attendance each exceeding 250,000) chosen for the first round of federal aid to encourage international tourism. Other recipients were the Montreal Jazz Festival, Calgary Stampede, Stratford and Shaw festivals, the Charlottetown Festival, Summer Festival in Quebec City and the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival applied but by the time McEwen was informed the event was under consideration there wasn't enough time to actually spend the cash.

"We didn't get any money this year but we will apply again next year," he says.

He would earmark any funds to marketing the festival in Grand Forks, Fargo and Minneapolis although he thinks it would be better invested in talent.

"With Americans not travelling as much these days because of the passport issue I don't know if the money would help overall or not," says McEwen. "I would hope we could use the money to put together some good acts on the outdoor stage or other things that would help draw people to the festival."

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For the record, the heavenly boy band musical spoof Altar Boyz was Winnipeg's top selling fringe show.

It sold 2,988 tickets, a measly 12 tickets from a 10-show sellout at the 300-seat Prairie Theatre Exchange mainstage.

"Three thousand is more than a whole season at WJT when I was there," says the show's director Kayla Gordon, former WJT artistic director. "Typically I remember if we had 1,500 to a show we were doing well.

"People were lining up 2-21/2 hours before to get into the show and I had no idea it would have that kind of hype."

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 22, 2009 C5