Performing at the Fringe on a budget

With news that there is an award for the best publicity stunt at the Edinburgh Fringe and realising that this award shows just how hard performers are trying in order to get their show noticed, I decided to make a list of things I have learned from my first show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

As it was my first show I was unaware of the costs involved and how easily they could all add up. It seemed everyone and their dog have ways for you to part with your cash when it comes to putting on a show at the Fringe.

So here are a few ideas for promoting your own show at the fringe on a budget.

Show Title

Make sure you have a catchy title and an attention grabbing description of your show for the fringe magazine. Assume the majority of people will not know your name. Get across what you are about in this section – there will be people out there who will like what you but only if you tell them about it. The Fringe Magazine is first stop for many when choosing what events to attend.

I put a theme into my show description, which described my style of songs and the stories they would be telling.

Emailing

With the usual sending out an email to your email list, I also asked folk if they could spread the word for me and tell their friends who were in Edinburgh.

Use Facebook, Myspace & Twitter. All the social networking sites at your disposal can be used to your advantage. They are free and have a huge reach.

Posters

I certainly think posters are vital for the venue itself and maybe a few other key places around the city. Put your own posters up and hand out your own flyers rather than spending £££s on 1000’s of posters/flyers.

Advertising

Avoid the vastly overpriced adverts in magazines. This will quickly blow any budget for a show without any guarantees of success.

Some magazines also offer last minute adverts as the deadline for publishing approaches at vastly reduced prices – e.g. £800 to £80, - but even at this I would still question whether it was worth it.

Make it Newsworthy

Can you find some unique aspect of you or your show that will stand out from the crowd. Remember Aaron Barschak? That guy who gate crashed Prince William’s birthday dressed as Osama Bin Laden? According to the press this attention seeking comedian stood to lose up to £15,000 on his run of poorly attended shows. Or was that another PR stunt in itself as it made the news which in turn probably helped him recoup some loses.

Busking – if you can be heard over the construction work!

Or busk at the venue itself. I attended a show where there was a bluegrass band playing to the queue of a show waiting to go in. They also handed out flyers and got on the chat with folks milling about.

Meet the Press

The Fringe ran a ‘meet the press event’ this year where you for free could speak directly to journalists. An excellent idea which avoids the use of expensive PR campaigns.

Local Radio

Offer to play a live set / interview, send out some cds./ even if you can just get them to mention it. Leith FM worked well for me.

please leave comments with any more your own ideas.

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An important lesson I learned for the next time was to book more than one show. This year I only booked one. If I had booked several nights, whilst the initial outlay would be higher, it would mean everything else becomes more cost effective. Also any reviews you can get then have the added effect of advertising the next show etc.

The average ticket sales for the fringe is 6. Unbelievable but true. Anything more than that and your doing well.

I’m still awaiting the final results of my ticket sales, but I had a good turnout, but with box office commissions, PRS payments etc, to come off that I am still just hoping to break even.

John

 

Celtic Music Radio

Last night I sat in as a guest on The Ciaran Dorris Show as his chosen cast away. For the trip i was allowed to take certain items - if you missed the show my selection is listed below. Many thanks to Ciaran and all at Celtic Music Radio.

songs -

1. Muddy Waters - Young Fashioned Ways

2. Greg Brown - Whippoorwill

3. Ted Hawkins - Long As I Can See The Light

Book - Touching The Void - Joe Simpson

DVD - Seinfeld - the entire tv series.

Luxury Item - my portable Italian stovetop espresso maker. ( a necessity)

and my very special dinner guest was - Michael Palin

what would yours be?

Edinburgh Fringe

On Monday night I made my way through to Edinburgh to play at my first ever Edinburgh Fringe Show at the Acoustic Music Centre at St Brides. (venue 123).

The biggest challenge about playing in Edinburgh is do I take the car or use public transport (this is like choosing the method for your own execution). Myself and Paul of The Doghouse Roses – who was helping me out on the night, opted for The Train. Amazingly enough we were still surprised when the train was cancelled and we had to squeeze onto the next one with all the rush hour commuters. A notice at Haymarket Station stated there were extra services being offered for the entirety of the festival, one of which on the return journey was a train carriage with faulty doors meaning it was completely empty whilst the others had standing room only.

Can’t wait for the tram system!

Anyway..

Being a first time performer at the fringe I had failed to realise that music performers call their show after their own/band name and so when it came to filling in the title of my show I put ‘Dust bowl Blues with a Glasgow Kick’. This was in order to try and portray the style of music I would be playing whilst making sure folks new I had a Scottish take on things. I think this worked in my favour and I had managed to shift half the tickets before the night (given the average attendance at the fringe is 6) this I was told was very good. Quite a few folks also turned up at the door which made the small back room feel quite full and on a hot sticky night made it almost unbearably warm. I was also amazed at the guide dog that slept the whole way through the performance (I'm assuming a good sign).

Having enjoyed the night and realising the potential of being part of the fringe I think I may well plan a return visit next year.

A big thanks to all those that came out to see me and a thank you to the staff and organisers at The Acoustic Music Centre who made the experience all worthwhile.

The cover songs I featured were:

• Hard Time Killing Floor – Skip James
• This Morning I am Born Again - Woody Guthrie / Slaid Cleaves
• The Train That Carried Jimmy Rogers Home – Greg Brown

Some of the other acts playing at the AMC St Brides

Born To Run

My 2nd Hampden concert in 2 weeks, this time to catch Bruce as he played in Glasgow for the first time in decades.

With no need for a support the show kicked off with an accordion rendition of Flower of Scotland then fired straight into Badlands with the crowd in full voice. This was a somewhat stripped down concert compared to AC/DC the other week, there was no need for fancy stage shows or effects just pure rock n roll as only The Boss can do.

full set list here

Slightly disappointed with the quality of sound from where i was standing - as it wasn't the clearest but I still enjoyed seeing a great songwriter whose album was one of the first in my record collection. Gutted i missed the first half of The River - thanks to the queue for the toilets but what i did catch was fantastic. The anthem of a generation Born To Run was kept teasingly till last.

Thunderstruck

An extremely hot week was further intensified by a high voltage show from AC/DC at Hampden on Tuesday.

With a rumble of a train crashing on to the stage, the energetic performance thundered off the tracks with Runaway Train.

Over 2 hours of stompin' rock classics such as Back in The Black, Hells Bells, T.N.T, Dity Deeds, encored with Highway to Hell and For Those About To Rock quenched the Glasgow crowd.

Never pretending to be anything more than a good time rock n roll band Brian Johnson kept on spittin out the gravel while Angus Young, duck walked, stripped, (yes) and ran whilst machine gunning licks from his geetar. 

All this and Bruce in 2 weeks too - what a summer this is.