Info Pack for Fringe Venues

Links to things you need:
fringe 2019 logo: see www.bathfringe.co.uk/about-the-fringe/links/
fringe 2019 artwork: not yet available to download
venues list: see www.bathfringe.co.uk/about-the-fringe/links/
venues poster: not yet available to download
press list: not yet available to download
how to publicise your event: there is a page of suggestions here.
deadlines: there is a timeline here. It may be updated as we go.
March 8th is the important date to remember!

what can the Fringe do for venues?
The easy level of what we can do is simply list your venue in the information we send out to prospective performers. Do we have up-to-date details?
If you like, we could talk to you a little about finding artists – if you have a specific idea of what you want – or we could ‘put out a call’ for specific kinds of artists or events. We could talk about kinds of events that have happened before (and their specific audiences) that you could host, or point you at specific programmers or artists if there’s something in particular that you’d like to see.

licensing
You almost certainly have some kind of licence for your premises, but does it cover what you’re thinking of doing? Temporary Event Notices are easy to apply for, cheap and flexible. Look here, or talk to B&NES Licensing Dept. (they’re very helpful), or to us.
Is your venue also licensed by PRS/MCPS/PPL (‘The Music Licence’)? If you’re not and there is music in your event, then you probably should be. It’s one of the ways that musicians and writers of songs & music of all sorts can get paid, and there are few enough of those nowadays.

working with the artists
This is a Fringe, so many of our artists are quite new to the game. It’s not always safe to assume anything: double-checking, even for things that seem obvious, never does any harm.
Be clear what staff (if any) you are providing, and when. A Bar Manager, for example, doesn’t want a whole load of extra jobs just when they’re trying to open. There are tasks (like doing a door) that are easily forgotten about on both sides (and that the artists quite probably have friends that would be happy to do). Your technicians, if applicable, will appreciate it if you get in whatever information they need in good time.
Many shows that are aimed at Fringes are quite short (an hour tops). Could you fit more than one into an afternoon or a session? Would that be advantageous? Would there be synergy or crossover between the events or their audiences?
Along with new artists there are often new ideas of how to do things. Sometimes these are fresh and interesting, sometimes there’s a generational thing that only Generation WiFi will connect to. We suggest being open to different ways of doing things. If you’re sceptical, come talk to us: we’ve probably heard of somebody else trying something similar.

communication, hand-holding, new artists & ideas
It barely needs to be said, but: frequent good communication between all parties all in good time saves you from bad and frantic (non-)communication on the night

working with the fringe

what the fringe needs from you:
You enter an event into the Fringe by filling out an online listings form and paying us the entry fee – unless the artist is merely hiring the space, in which case work out & agree which of you is paying. If you’ve got a show that is going ahead, make sure that the Fringe Office knows about it – then we can send you the rest of the instructions. EMail Wendy at the Fringe Office

box offices
There are a number of useful box offices, both actual offices (eg. Bath Box Office, now on Bog Island) and online. You can organise this yourselves, or we’re setting something up with Komedia Box Office that we will pass on the info for with the Event Registration information – either when you register and event or when you enquire about doing so.

Ticket prices.
During the Fringe there is some competition for the contents of ticket-buyers’ pockets. Although premium events do work, we always advocate making shows cheap as you can in order to get people in. The price of a cinema ticket is quite a good guide, and if you undercut that you’re doing still better…

telling the world:
You certainly need to get involved with the marketing of your shows. Although you’re in the Fringe programme brochure and on the website, so are 200 other events and to be fair to everyone we can’t really differentiate between how we publicise different events too much. We mostly look to publicise the festival as a whole (sometimes promoting prominent events and artists to help this), although we do send complete event listings to all the outlets we think might use them.

We have made a page about publicising your event. It’s here.
There will be a press contacts list but it’s still in preparation: look at www.bathfringe.co.uk/about-the-fringe/links/ in April.

It’s very much worthwhile having your own event poster. Though there is a lot of competition for poster space at Festival time (we will try again to make more spaces) it’s an opportunity you shouldn’t miss to use pictures, typography and information to get over the unique flavour of your event in a way that a simple listing cannot. It’s worth giving us a small number of posters just in case we have access to places that you don’t in the lead-up to the Festival.

What can venues do for each other?
Carry each other’s flyers and posters. Check for clashes. Ticket deals? Website links.In the Fringe we’re all talking each other up, talking Bath up (and its wonderful artistic community), rather than competing.