My name is Abbie and I’m your friendly, neighborhood Fringe Food & Beverage Director! I’m thrilled to be returning for my fourth year with the Hollywood Fringe Festival. When I first joined the ranks of the Fringe staff as a volunteer and Bar Manager in 2010, I never imagined that Fringe would be where it is today or that Ben would still have hair. Yet, here we are on the precipice of the 2013 festival and I’m hoping to make it the best year yet for Bryan’s Bar at Fringe Central.

What are your goals for this years’ festival?

My main goal remains the same every year: create a welcoming watering hole for Fringe-goers that pays for itself by the end of the festival. I’m also working on some new design and staffing ideas to streamline bar operations and improve our level of service.

What are your biggest challenges leading up to the festival?

Despite how popular and well-known the festival has become, wrangling in sponsors for the bar continues to be one of my biggest challenges. So this is the part where I shamelessly ask you, dear reader: “Do you know someone in the alcoholic beverage industry that wants to give us free things?” If you do, please email me at [email protected]

What is the best part of your job?

I am rarely able to get away from Fringe Central during the festival, so I don’t get much of an opportunity to see shows. But I still have the opportunity to interact with a diverse array of artists and witness all the amazing live entertainment Fringe Central has to offer. Hearing about everyone’s experiences and getting to know everyone gives me a unique perspective that I can use to improve the bar year after year. I also love yelling, “Last call!” It makes me feel important.

Who would win in a fight between Gedaly Guberek and Greg Crafts?

Tough call! Greg has the size advantage, but factoring in Gedaly’s completion of a certain 90-day fitness regimen, I’d say it’s anybody’s match.

Have you ever wondered…

“Can I talk with people who have already experienced Fringe without trying to navigate Twitter?”

“How can I recruit performers from the already-huge pool of Fringe participants without messaging them individually?”

“Is there some way to send a message to everyone performing at my venue?”

Many of you have been asking for it for years: a way to communicate en masse with other Fringers. Whether you need information about the best place to stay, or if someone wants to share marketing space in a program, many of the community members (including myself) have been brainstorming a way to help encourage more communication within the fringe community. So this year we are launching The Fringe Forum!

This is meant to be a standard Q&A site for the Fringe community to converse and get to know one another. It’s not meant to be a replacement for [email protected], but rather an open forum for everyone.

In the future we hope to be able to develop our own forum that won’t require a google account to access. In the meantime, please enjoy some better access to your fellow Fringe participants!

So have at it, Fringe people!

Join us for the first #HFF13 Twitter chat on Monday, January 28th from 6:00 to 7:00pm PST. The first of our chats will focus on all things Registration (like creating a project, venue-related questions, registration fees, etc.) so get your questions or stories ready to share. All you have to do to join the discussion is use the hashtag #HFF13.

We’ll also be announcing a new community feature that will be launched on our website during this twitter chat – so follow along to find out what it is.

The twitter chat will be moderated by Rachel Stoll, our Social Media Manager, from the @HollywoodFringe account. Other staff members will also be available to answer questions, and we’ll close out the discussion with an “Ask the Festival Director” segment, where you have a chance to ask Ben Hill anything and everything about Fringe. This is the first in a series of Twitter chats leading up to the 2013 festival. #HFF13 chats will occur on the last Monday of every month from 6:00pm to 7:00pm PST.

We can’t wait to answer your questions and to hear what you’re planning for this year’s festival.

You (or one of your friends) can be the head graphic designer for the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival! All you have to do is enter our first ever design contest next week.

Dates of the Contest

You can start submitting your designs for the qualifying round at 99designs.com/people/hollywoodfringe starting Monday, January 28th. To ensure your design is eligible for the final round, make sure we receive your concept by the end of the day on Thursday, January 31st.

What We Want You to Design

Every year, we produce a printed guide of all the shows produced at our festival. This contest is centered around the GUIDE COVER IMAGE; the seminal representation of the 2013 festival.

Here are three guides of years past:
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2012
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2011
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2010

Generally, the cover image includes our mascots – “the freaks”. The five main freaks are included on the cover of the 2012 Guide. The “look” of these freaks can be adapted to fit the your unique aesthetic so feel free to play into your comfort zone (see the links above for examples of previous adaptations).

The winner of this contest is immediately eligible for additional work finishing off the rest of the guide design. See below for more info.

The Big Prize

The winner of the contest will receive $499 and be eligible for another $1000 to finish off the guide, produce the button and create the image for the 2013 Festival Tee. Anyone can participate, they just need to create a (free) account on 99Designs.com.

We’d also adapt the images above to be used as print and online ads.

Other Info

Our team has lots of experience working with designers and we have in-house adobe suite experts, so we won’t be constantly going to you for minor updates.

We are ready to answer your questions, so feel free to communicate at will. Just email us at [email protected].

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to your submissions!

Thanks to everyone who attended the first Town Hall of the season last Thursday— we were thrilled to see lots of new faces mingling with some of our veteran participants. There was a great vibe in the air— we’re more convinced than ever that the fourth annual festival will be the best yet. A big thanks to Theatre Asylum for hosting the event!

In this Town Hall, we discussed a wide range of topics surrounding preparations for the 2013 Festival.

For those of you who missed it, we recorded the proceedings.

Enjoy!

Having trouble viewing the slideshow in this post? Here’s the direct link.

Still have questions? Email us at [email protected] or join us for the first of our monthly Twitter Chats on Monday, January 28th at 6pm. You can join the conversation by using #hff13.