BitsFestival

Here it is, the first sneak peak at the program for Bits Festival 2010.

programme mark2

From Friday evening 26th November to Sunday evening 28th November, 16 companies present 16 rocking bits of work at 5 venues.

More details to follow…

We had a generous response to our request for feedback from audience members on Saturday. Here is the analysis:

1) How many bitsFestival performances have you attended ?

75% attended more than 2 performances.

2) bitsFestival is open-access (no selection process) fringe theatre. How important is it to you to have this type of festival, where the program is created by the artists, rather than by a selection committee?
81.25% considered it important, or very important.

3) bitsFestival facilitates access to non-conventional performance spaces. How important is it to you to have access to performance in non-theatre spaces?
75% considered it important, or very important.

4) For this first bitsFestival, the venues offered their facilities to the artists and the public for free. In future artists will negotiate with venues to hire the space and share box office proceeds, so there will be ticket prices to pay. How much are you be prepared to pay for Fringe Theatre?
$15 per event was the most popular choice (50%) with $10 coming in second, and few generous souls being prepared to pay $20.

5) How would you rate the quality of bitsFestival Events?
Half our audience respondents were delighted with the quality, 25% thought it excellent, and 25% placed it at the halfway mark.

6) Would you prefer fringe events spread over the suburbs, or centralised in the city?
6.25% preferred it in their local area, 25% wanted both local and city, with the majority preferring city-based events.

7) Where did you hear about bitsFestival?
Facebook was the clear winner with 43.7%, followed by word of mouth from friends and from attending other events where bitsFestival was announced.

So, pardon me if I say: WELL DONE US!! Well done, the independent theatre-makers of Brisbane who put themselves and their reputations on the line to have a go, well done the audiences who took a chance on some unknown quantities and were rewarded by – as one of our respondents put it – “some of the most exciting, entertaining theatre I’ve seen in Brisbane, ever!” There may have been some shows that missed the mark, but not for lack of enthusiasm, ingenuity and courage, and I don’t doubt that they found the process instructive. There will be an artists’ survey form going out in a day or so, inviting participants to share their experience and to propose ways the festival could be improved.

Please add your own comments here on the blog, or email me at flloyd@bitsfestival.com. It ain’t over yet!

I didn’t manage to capture all the shows, but here is the second video, with clips from the The Joynt and Top Floor.

You can also see Quantum Clown performances of “A Whole Bunch o’ Clowns” both at the Fringe Bar, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxgY_QKjUA and at The Joynt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgbgPvYfmFQ

BREAKING NEWS!!!
One of our bitsFestival participants, Cradle, will be presenting a show at Top Floor in a couple of weeks. Details to follow…

Here is the first of two short videos, this shows some of the acts at Fringe Bar yesterday. The light was great for the audience, but not so hot for video archiving, something to look out for another time… (Lots of lessons learned, believe me!)

So, here’s a little taste of the Taster, a sample of the Sampler, a few bits of the bitsFestival. Enjoy!

Sarah and I had a meeting with Brett and Caran from the Adelaide Fringe Festival today.  They were most generous and helpful, sharing their experience and explaining how their organisation works to support fringe artists for the annual Adelaide Fringe Festival.

They held an open information session this afternoon, and it was inspiring to be in the room with lots of dedicated theatre artists, all keen to tour their work to audiences far and wide.

It make me think that, while Brisbane ain’t Broadway, or off Broadway, or even off off Broadway, perhaps we could take advantage of bitsF to do our out-of-town-previews, placing our work in front of a local audience in order to gauge how it stacks up, whether it is ready to hit the road, the great white way of Fringe-dom.  Just a sample of the work will be enough to get an idea of where it can go from there, how it can be developed, what still needs to be fine-tuned before taking it to Adelaide, or Edinburgh – or Broadway, come to that.

Still some great stuff to be seen on the Brisbane Festival. Everyone is raving about the Carnival’s Edge. Be there – or be something else, busy getting your bitsF submission ready perhaps.

Yes, things are definitely hotting up around here, with FOUR – yes 4 – quatre – fier – chetire – FOUR venues now offering space for the bitsFestival, on 28th November.

We have

Top Floor, in the City

Fringe Bar, in the Valley

The Joynt, West End

The Book Nook, West End.

and there may be more yet.

Oblong & Sons are working on our logo, our new website, and much more.

I know people are starting to think about what they can do, and the excitement is becoming – well – even more exciting.  So here again is what is on offer -

A ten minute slot to do whatever bit of a show you can imagine putting live on stage.

Free venue

Open access – the only limitations are the limits of your imagination

As soon as the new website is up and running, we will put the Registration Form online. There will be a fee to register.

Start dreaming, because if you can imagine it happening on stage, you can make it happen.

I hope you’ve been catching some of the amazing Under The Radar shows that Brisbane Festival made available for us. Support your fellow artists, be inspired, get your act together and do it your way.

I just received this weeks’ copy of the e-newsleter “A Little Gossip”, with word about a show that is happening in Brisbane now, but not part of the Brisbane Festival.  Does this constitute a ‘fringe’ event? Discuss!

For my mind, at $75 a ticket it is too expensive to qualify as ‘fringe’. I’d love to go, but it’s just plain way beyond my limited means. But, here are the details

“Ken Lord stars in Brisbane Unplugged, a one-man cabaret spectacle.

“Written by Ken Lord, Directed by Karen Crone and Musical Direction by Ken McLean.

“A fast-paced humorous take on Brisbane’s sacred cows, high profilers, institutions and wannabes. 100 minutes of unofficial 150th Birthday fun.

“Admission includes pre-show cocktail food, designer ice cream and after-show coffee and Queensland lamingtons!

Check it out here: Brisbane Unplugged