USAFF Website Launched

We are excited to announce the launch of a newly minted website from the United States Association of Fringe Festivals (USAFF): An alliance of US Fringes. One of these days, our schedules will allow us to attend (and maybe even host) one of the USAFF annual conferences. This last year’s conference was held in Orlando and hosted by the legendary Beth Marshall, the director of the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival.

Here’s our page on the new USAFF site:
http://fringefestivals.us/festival/the-hollywood-fringe-festival

Regular readers of this space know that we aren’t too fond of organizations attempting to define/control/police what a Fringe is. When we began this festival, the single best piece of advice we received was to match the festival to our city. That simple rule has helped keep us on track when approached with murky decisions with no clear, good answer.

Here’s how the USAFF defines a Fringe:

Very generally speaking, Fringes are…

• Focused on the performing arts: Theater, dance, puppetry, spoken word and the like make up the Fringe core, but festivals often may include film and visual arts elements
• Uncensored: No one gets too fussy about swears or nudity but squeaky-clean content isn’t marginal or discouraged, either
• Easy to participate in: Ticket prices are low for audiences and production fees are low for artists. Show selection varies from festival to festival but is generally quite open to participation by the gamut of amateurs to professionals
• Festivals: They last from just a few days to a few weeks and involve boatloads of people at multiple venues
• Original: Fringes feature a huge array of original material—sometimes by design, but usually because that’s what Fringes naturally do well
• Rapid-fire: Typically, tech is minimal and time is a factor at our festivals. Shows are often kept brief (Fringes most frequently have shows right around 60 minutes in length) and technical requirements kept simple (minor sets, streamlined cues, nothing elaborate)

Check out the site, courtesy of our industrious friends at MN Fringe Festival.

Ben