Click through to see a video of the 2008 Dublin Fringe Festival highlights… not long to go now until we launch 2009! 

Here we are, the last day of the Dublin Fringe Festival 2008!!!!!  At this point I think it’s important to reflect over the last few weeks and think about what the Fringe meant to each of  us - the crazy nights in Spiegeltent, the wonderful shows that we saw and the great team who made it all possible.

When I think of the Fringe Festival, I think of phones hopping mad, staff rosters, comp allocations and the general madness but yet excitement in the office each day as we tried to get everything organised.  I think we can all agree that this year’s programme did not disappoint.  There was something for everyone!

It’s been a great pleasure to work for the Fringe this year.  I’ve learnt a lot, particularly when it comes to the techie stuff!  (Sarah knows all about it, bless her patience!).  I’ve enjoyed each and every minute of it!  Excel is my new best friend!

I can’t finish up without aknowledging the fact that this year’s festival was our Artist Director, Wolfgang Hoffman’s last.  He has brought an amazing programme to Dublin over the last 4 years.  Congratulations on a very successful Festival and all the best for the future.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the festival as much as I have.  It was hard work but well worth it!  Roll on Fringe 2009 and have a great night tonight!!!!!!!!

Twenty four hours until the last ticketed event opens and I can stop talking about guest lists, allocations, comps, discounts, buy backs, float sheets, refunds, apologies (I’m sorry, we’re out of programmes/ tickets/ printer ink), cancellations, apologies (I’m sorry that show has been cancelled), promotions, printers, ticket printers, network printers, tickets, event summaries, the mind-crunching stress of the 6:15 push out, apologies (I’m sorry, that show was over sold, I’m going to have to offer you a refund), start times, amended start times, producers calling for the xth time to ask where there sales are, add a matinee, cancel a matinee, apologies (I’m sorry I never got your comp list and your VIP international producer is on the standby list), missing volunteers, tired and hungover box office staff, rotating managers, and apologies (I’m sorry my system is just very slow right now, can I call you back?).

But there were celebrations for every 1,000 tickets, amazing theatre, fake mustache day, wonderful happy efficient staff against all odds, Susan & Darren, pizza & beer, AMAZING inspiring coworkers who willingly join in the mess each year, lovely producers, having Andy & Polly based at filmbase, a lovely glimpse in Gavin Kostick’s mind, speed dating with the companies, pizza & beer, that day nothing bad happened to computers or printers, being the judge of the artist club chat up line contest, the companies that blow me away, seeing Wolfgang dance on stage and off, volunteers who show up in the rain with a smile on their face and a bucket of cop-on ready to get the job done, pizza & beer, companies who smile, phone calls about something anything good that happened, sneaking out of the office for a matinee, beanbags, Polaroid, Buckfast, discovering a love of clowns, and stumbling backstage

See you at bosco, we’ll sleep in October.

X sarah – box office manager

We’re now into the thirteenth day of the Fringe, and the cracks are beginning to show. Not in the festival itself, you understand, it’s going super well, rather in the staff.  We’re holding it together though, each of us in our own special way.  Jenny (Programme Director) was the first to make public her coping mechanism, returning laden with goods from the health food shop before the festival even began. At the time I thought this an unescessary and ill-founded act, but the joke’s on me as she’s still bounding around full of echinacea looking amazing whereas I’m sitting at a desk littered with Diet Coke bottles and empty pick’n'mix bags looking utterly horrifying.  Some Marketing Assistants have tried it all it seems (Jenny’s echinacea is on his desk, along with an empty Subway bag, a box of Ciara’s Milk Tray and something alarmingly called ‘Red Kooga’ ginseng), and are still passed out on a bean bag under their desks.  I’d judge, but it’ll probably be me tomorrow.  Many have turned to coffee, and even more, worryingly, to Buckfast.

Luckily, the Fringe is turning out to be well worth the toll it’s taking on our appearances, our alcohol consumption levels and our sanity.  A personal highlight was Tuesday night, making sandwiches (in retrospect really, really bad sandwiches) and being informed that the very gay, very male star of the show ‘used to look at lot like me when he worked the sex lines’.  All part of the audience experince at Susan and Darren.  So yes, we may be tired, we may be run-down, we may even be drunk, but we’re excited. Bring on the last weekend!

Jelly legs, squinting eyes and and a desire for homemade stew brings me into week 2 of this wild trip of a festival!

After getting a few days of incredible sunshine over the weekend down in Grand Canal Square for Equilibre, the man never really fell off the digger, the couple on the tightropes didnt really break up and some underwear was added to a performance. All in all a successful weekend. A few hundred people came out for each of the three performances and loved it! Cool. Could not have gone better. Phew!It’s amazing what happens when you approach someone like Wolfgang with an idea….He says “Zooper, let’s do it” then before you know it there’s a digger being ordered and you just do it!

Meanwhile over in Civic Office Helen had a War on her hands with the weather last night for War of the Roses but by all accounts it rocked! Canons in Dublin City Centre? Of course its the Fringe! 

Meanwhile back at the tent, 3epkano and Donal Dineen lulled everyone into submission with the hypnotic visuals and live orchestral performance. Sweet!

Some moments I’ve been lovin’..

Lisa Hannigan singing The Man I love: spine tingling.

Amy G going round and round

Thanks to Duncan from Ukiyo!

The artists club costume making competition and fashion show!!!!!! Messy!!!

Ophelia performed live in The Bosco Artists Club while a ramchackle marauding swagger of scantily clad artists swung stage sets overhead and dangled pieces of carpet from all sorts of places!

By the way nice job Kieron Black!!!! Teapots of Punch! Of course! What else did you expect?

Sure I could go on and on but the only thing that needs saying is get up , get out (on jelly legs if necessary) we’re not done yet, it’s only going to get more more more. Don’t get caught out when its all over and someone is telling you about the amazing show they saw and you were sitting at home watching Corrie…

Come on out and have a bit of craic!

Tonight on the cards is Mad Mabe in the Bosco at 6.15 and then Susan and Darren at 8 in Smock Alley.

One last thing particular thanks to each and every person who does their bit in the fringe, what a team!! To Kev, volunteer extraordinaire who has been taking care of thisisnotashop, (Wheels Beneath Toys) all week while I’ve been galavanting and carousing with diggers and watertubes. Cheers I owe you a pint! See you all on the dancefloor, a la jelly!

Aideen xx

This day started much like every other day in the sleepy (and hung-over) City of Dublin…  It started with people feverishly running about the place, trying to accomplish near impossible tasks for our beloved Fringe Festival.  Denying themselves of a well earned lie-in to lug heavy loads, chase from one venue to another, organise the unorganise-able and facilitate the unfacilitate-able.

Now… Allow me, if you will, to tell you a little about these people, of whom I speak…

As you read this, somewhere out there – a person is doing a largely thankless job.  

Some call these people volunteers…

Some call them slave labour

…

…I call them heroes

…

… and friends

Let us not allow their praises to go unsung any longer!

The fringe would fail without you

Our deepest gratitude (and a massive high-five)

The Fringe Staff

I’ve worked on and followed the Fringe for many years now but it has been a great honour to see it blossom magnificently - and hey its only Autumn. Is it Global warming or the best Fringe ever heating the city up??

It has been a dream of the festival to steer the hub of the Fringe from a green site to have more room to include the new Hennessy Spiegeltent and her new litte sister tent The Bosco Theatre (which staged Amy G’s fantastic show Round She Goes) and boy what  a success it has been and only just  five days into Dublin’s biggest and best multi-disciplinary festival (if not the country).

For me I have dipped out of many great shows already, in all genres, with camera crews and photographers keen to get the best from this superb festival programmed by Wolfgang & Jenny Jennings- Wolfgang has brought the festival to great places in his fours years with the festival It’s sad to know that he is leaving soon amidst all this festival fun. I got to taste Chatroom, How to be Loved, Drinking Dust even got a private painting pimping session with the lovley Will St Leger and RTE’s Anne Cassin. Saw Saori’s Birthday at Project the other night in full, which I loved and of course La Clique which I have seen in many guises over the years both here and abroad (Brett where are the roller-skating duo I saw in Edinburgh 3 years ago - Dublin would love them).

The Fringe team have been amazing this year we’ve been so lucky to have the best Fringe interns EVER and everyone’s maintained good humour and created great fun when necessary to break the stresses of the days leading up to the festival opening - rock on the second week with more from La Clique, try and catch some Susan & Darren, and the wonderful Camille has just landed back home so check her out at the Hennessy Spiegeltent. This Friday and Saturday more of the Fringe goes outdoors at Grand Canal Dock an event for all the family, which I cant wait to see the ballet dancer with the JCB digger tightrope walkers and a man who immerses himself in a giant test tube. It will be amazing. Fringe-tastic, lets keep going….

Ct

Marketing Marketing Marketing…Vision ,Branding ,Reasoning and Mission,love,passion…It might not be the four p’s but its all gone out the window

But in the best possible way.There was a whisper around the office and its been around Sackville place for quite some time now…Make it happen.It’s happening now, all the hard work of everyone involved in The Big F is out the proverbial window.There’s no taking it back,it’s grown and it’s out on its own doing it’s best not to trip up. It’s professional ,its clunky (on occasion) ,its brave and dare I say it,it’s at the fringe

It’s not on paper anymore…

Note to self:

Remember to do job as well as see shows…she’s not over yet

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When you work for the Fringe, things which once might have been a highlight of a day, or just a strange bizzare occurance, become quite normal. It’s only Tuesday morning, but so far in the festival I have seen or done all of the following:

- sat in the smallest auditorium in the world and watched a live version of ‘Un Chien Andalou’ (Blackbox)

- eaten gingerbread and drank wine with a mother and daughter during their show (The Show about the Show)

- learned some blackjack tricks from a Vegas professional (Luck)

- helped Queen’s number one fan to crowd surf the Hennessy Spiegeltent (La Clique)

- watched people riff, jump and bounce off the DCC buildiung walls (Urban PLayground)

- listened to Mr Sandman (Cathy Davey)

- looked for a drill and never found Chico at the Metro Bosco Theatre festival club…

- took part in a live radio show in a Secret garden (www.rte.ie/fringe)

I’m looking forward to this list growing.

-Tom, Marketing Manager

Here we are, today it’s my turn…it’s a very nice day today. The office is really quiet after the big party last night and the few people in today are quite sleepy. I was in pretty early to prepare sandwiches and fruit for the Day of Dance in Dancehouse. The Festival officially kicked off yesterday with a fabulous opening party in the Secret Garden, which was looking amazing! The music was great and the atmosphere was absolutely magic. I was so tired when I went home from work yesterday, I really didn’t feel like party but then I arrived at the Iveagh Garden and after a look at the place and the people my tiredness was gone. I have been learning so much here, the days are so packed with things to do but everything it’s happening in the end. Artists are arriving, transfers have to be sorted, problems have to be solved and everybody here it’s working with so much passion. The Fringe has started and I am so glad I am giving a little help to make things happen.

Ok it’s better I go now, have fun at the Fringe and take it easy.

Love

Antonella