Kid's Day at Fringe Fest on Saturday
Michael Black
meant to ask Rebecca, the "outoor sites events coordinator" exactly
what will occur.
On Saturday from noon till 6pm, at the Beer Tent (on Napoleon just off
St. Lawrence Blvd), it will be kids day. Of course, I always thought
every day at the Fringe was kid's day.
Supposedly there will be jugglers, face painters, balloon animals (I
hope the guy who visits the Fringe once a year and makes x-rated
balloon animals has been banned for the day), music, dancing, and
storytelling. There's supposed to be a puppet workshop, so bring a
sock. It would be nice if Lazareth the dummy ("Once Upon A...") shows
up, and I can picture the people from "Please God, I Swear..." showing
up in their stilts. They were standing outside the Rick Miller show on
Wednesday (they just arrived that day, and their first show was at
about midnight), in stilts and it was quite a surprise coming out of
the venue and seeing them. Someone about 6 or 7 comes out, and has to
look way, way up to see their faces.
I'm sure they will be origami, cranes and frogs for sure, because as
shows finish their run the flyers become available. And rumour has it
that Freddy Fringe (the alien on the program and posters, not to be
confused with the alien from the saucer cult) will make an appearance.
This may be a lot of fun, since it gives us a chance to show up with
our toys.
The Fringe Festival (running till Sunday the 27th, but some of the
shows have finished their runs already, and the last minute rush may
make for crowds) has a webpage at http://www.montrealfringe.ca where
the program can be found.
As I mentioned the other day, you can find The Gazette's coverage of
the Fringe online at http://www.montrealonline.com/festivals/
Gaetan Charlebois, theatre critic at Hour, has an online Fringe Diary
at http://www.afterhour.com/special/fringe/fringe.asp?id=3 It's
interactive this year, so you can read other people's comments about
shows and the Fringe itself, and post your own.
As I was putting up buzz lastnight, I noticed that one of them was
a URL for a webpage, and a comment about how there were some more
reviews there. It says something about the internet's potential,
and quite a bit about the Fringe, that such a page exists. Anyway,
it's at http://www.total.net/~blork/fringe though all I know about
it is what's at that page.
On Sunday night, at ten pm at the Beer Tent, the second annual Frankie
Awards will take place. I saw Frankie himself at the Beer Tent
yesterday, though as with last year I think the wheel-chair
inaccessible sites are keeping him from the shows. The awards will be
fairly amusing, and I imagine there will be some sort of performance
as part of it; Rick Miller performed last year before the actual
awards got underway.
The beer was flowing briskly lastnight at the Beer Tent, though at
times it slowed to a crawl as the ice melted and someone had to run
down to 4 Freres to buy another ten bags of ice. Somene was worried
about frozen nipples on Wednesday.
By the way, the Comic Jam did happen on Tuesday. but the first
signs of it were when extra tables were set up shortly before 7pm.
Then the comic guys showed up with their bags of fresh new markers,
and got to work. But they grouped together in one area and there
seemed little interaction between them and the Fringers.
I meant to get a copy of the top-ten shows so far, but I forgot
so I can't include it here.
Michael