Your role at festivals like Fringe

Opinion

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This article was published 20/07/2023 (778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Downtown Winnipeg portrays a livelier version of itself when the curtain opens on the 2023 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

It’s a difficult role, because for most of the year, downtown is like an out-of-luck actor in search of one big break to showcase forgotten and foregone potential.

An all-too brief opportunity for the core to strut its stuff happens every summer, during the 12 days of the fringe festival in particular.

It’s when Old Market Square achieves its purpose as the entertainment hub of the Exchange District, filled with folks enjoying free performances at the Cube stage, fare from a bevy of food trucks and cool beverages from a park-wide beer and wine garden.

Meanwhile, thousands of others wander the Exchange, the historic downtown neighbourhood that straddles Main Street, clutching their fringe programs and seeking a theatrical escape from the headaches of rising interest rates, divisive politics and climate change.

The fringe specializes in comedies, but its economic benefits to the city are no laughing matter, and neither are the boosts the downtown receives other from other civic celebrations, such as the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, which in June also uses Old Market Square for free shows, and the citywide Folklorama multicultural event in August.

The fringe festival sold almost 100,000 tickets in 2019, its last one prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which worked out to an average of more than 8,000 butts in seats a day for 12 consecutive days.

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, which runs the festival, said 60,000-70,000 people attended the Old Market Square performances and 5,000 tickets for Kids Fringe shows were sold, creating a 12-day jolt to Winnipeg’s economy.

That was all taken away in 2020, when the pandemic called a halt to all festivals in Manitoba, and didn’t return until last year, when a fringe fest roughly half the size of 2019’s sold almost 60,000 tickets. This year’s fringe is up to 143 shows for this year, 32 more than in 2022, another sign the arts and activity downtown are finally turning around.

The absence of arts and cultural events, followed by their painfully slow re-emergence, has been one of many reasons why downtown Winnipeg has struggled in the 2020s.

Stores have closed, offices have shut and vacancies in shopping malls such as Portage Place have given off a vibe that downtown Winnipeg is a thing of the past, adding further ammunition to a stereotype, whether perceived or deserved, of a decaying area beset with crime.

That has prompted the provincial government to promise $10 million over two years on a new safety strategy for downtown, including 24 more police officers, 75 new closed-circuit cameras and a community safety office.

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Should those promises come to fruition, they’ll give police more tools to spot and act against criminal activity.

There’s another way to give downtown a lift and deter crime at the same time, at a fraction of the cost.

The answer is getting more people downtown because there is safety in numbers, whether they are people who choose to live and shop in the city centre, go to work there or attend one of the countless events there.

A downtown without people is eerie everywhere, be it a poorly lit street in New York, Paris or, yes, Portage and Main.

Winnipeggers have a role to play in relieving the downtown of its drama. One way to act is to follow the beat of its summer festivals and give the heart of the city another chance.