Shouting about the Fringe

My new role as marketing officer has thrown up a few dilemmas. Just how much do we want to shout about the Fringe – to the tune of 14, 18 or 20,000 Fringe flyers? Despite our meagre budget, can we pass up the chance to take an ad in the Tourist Board’s new Welcome Brochure with its massive print run of 150,000? Do we keep up with the big boys and renew our membership of BAFA (the British Arts Festivals Association)? The short answer to these questions, if you are interested, is 20,000, ‘No!’ and ‘Yes!’

In truth, as our logo might suggest, we are always involved in a juggling act to wring the most out of the money we have and to spread the word about the Fringe and the arts generally to as many people as possible at as low a cost as possible. So we have a hard-working Fringe press team and thankfully a very supportive local media – the Buxton Advertiser, Pure Buxton, Radio Derby, Artsbeat and more – who help us publicise everything we do for free! We also do a lot of work on the ground networking. Tonight for example I’m putting on some orange and representing the Fringe at the presentation evening for Buxton Community School, whose students regularly help us at the Fringe desk. For those of us on the Fringe committee it becomes second nature to tell people what we do and more importantly what our performers do.

And that’s where you come in really. Will you help tell people about our friendly festival and encourage them to put on a show, become a Fringe Friend or just come along and swell our audiences in July? With the panto season beginning (and I can’t wait to see Cinderella at the Buxton Opera House this weekend) ,  I guess we’re just encouraging our own kind of audience participation. That way we all get to have a ball!