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JUST THE TWO OF US The Real Deal Behind the Two Festivals
OK everyone, you may have noticed a few changes this year; perhaps more so this year that others. Festival staff is talking crazy talk again… Something about two different festivals…the box office staff has a new greeting on the phone… and the guide does this weird flippy-thing so you don’t know which end is up… you wanna know what’s going on? I’m gonna break it down for ya… one more time.
The Edinburgh Festivals started in Scotland over 60 years ago. Since the late 1940s Edinburgh has become a hotspot for artistic talent and it all began with the hand picked artists of the International Festival and the radical artists that decided to do their own thing on the “Fringe” of this high-art international collection. Since then, seven (count em) SEVEN different Festivals take place in Edinburgh during the month of August and the first week of September. There is a festival for Books, Film, Jazz and Blues, Intercultural Art and Food, the Military Tattoo in the Castle and... the International Festival and the Festival Fringe. They are all under the same umbrella of the Edinburgh Festivals. Check out www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk for more.
When Nick Stuccio and Eric Schoeffer visited Edinburgh during the month of August in 1996, they saw a city that had been transformed by art… over a 50-year period. Inspired by all of the Edinburgh Festivals, the two lads returned home to Philadelphia with a dream to create the same event here… in one year. Not an easy task. What they came up with was a handpicked International Fringe, an amalgamation of what they experienced in Scotland. They called it The Philadelphia Fringe Festival; two different ideas rolled into one. They loved it, artists loved it, Philly loved it! But we knew deep in our hearts that only one part of our Festival was true “Fringe” in the spirit of Edinburgh and the other was more like the handpicked International Festival.
As the Fringe grew, our little mutation turned into an administrative and artistic two-headed monster. Between fulfilling the desire to program internationally renowned artists and provide adequate support for artists who wanted to produce themselves on their own terms, the Fringe was about to bust its britches. So Nick and his weary staff decided to let that happen. The two Festivals that were always there are being allowed to have identities of their own. Barry Becker has been brought on as the Philly Fringe Coordinator, the Live Arts Festival programming has even more shape, and the guide is clearly two different sections. The two-headed monster has begun its separation process so that it will be able to grow into...umm… two healthy monsters. OK, I apologize for taking the metaphor a little two far, but do you catch my meaning?
The Live Arts Festival has begun to be carved away from the Philly Fringe so that 30 or 40 years from now, when the Spoken Word festival, or the Puppetry Festival, or the Crème Brule Festival wants to start up, it can. The Live Arts and Philly Fringe will simply make room under the umbrella of – I don’t know- the Philadelphia Arts Festivals? - and Philadelphia will become the art mecca it is moving towards being.
So the phrase of the day is – laying the groundwork
Exciting, huh? I’d stick around Philly for a while if I were you.
Your ex-administrator,
Lee Ann Etzold
OK everyone, you may have noticed a few changes this year; perhaps more so this year that others. Festival staff is talking crazy talk again… Something about two different festivals…the box office staff has a new greeting on the phone… and the guide does this weird flippy-thing so you don’t know which end is up… you wanna know what’s going on? I’m gonna break it down for ya… one more time.
The Edinburgh Festivals started in Scotland over 60 years ago. Since the late 1940s Edinburgh has become a hotspot for artistic talent and it all began with the hand picked artists of the International Festival and the radical artists that decided to do their own thing on the “Fringe” of this high-art international collection. Since then, seven (count em) SEVEN different Festivals take place in Edinburgh during the month of August and the first week of September. There is a festival for Books, Film, Jazz and Blues, Intercultural Art and Food, the Military Tattoo in the Castle and... the International Festival and the Festival Fringe. They are all under the same umbrella of the Edinburgh Festivals. Check out www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk for more.
When Nick Stuccio and Eric Schoeffer visited Edinburgh during the month of August in 1996, they saw a city that had been transformed by art… over a 50-year period. Inspired by all of the Edinburgh Festivals, the two lads returned home to Philadelphia with a dream to create the same event here… in one year. Not an easy task. What they came up with was a handpicked International Fringe, an amalgamation of what they experienced in Scotland. They called it The Philadelphia Fringe Festival; two different ideas rolled into one. They loved it, artists loved it, Philly loved it! But we knew deep in our hearts that only one part of our Festival was true “Fringe” in the spirit of Edinburgh and the other was more like the handpicked International Festival.
As the Fringe grew, our little mutation turned into an administrative and artistic two-headed monster. Between fulfilling the desire to program internationally renowned artists and provide adequate support for artists who wanted to produce themselves on their own terms, the Fringe was about to bust its britches. So Nick and his weary staff decided to let that happen. The two Festivals that were always there are being allowed to have identities of their own. Barry Becker has been brought on as the Philly Fringe Coordinator, the Live Arts Festival programming has even more shape, and the guide is clearly two different sections. The two-headed monster has begun its separation process so that it will be able to grow into...umm… two healthy monsters. OK, I apologize for taking the metaphor a little two far, but do you catch my meaning?
The Live Arts Festival has begun to be carved away from the Philly Fringe so that 30 or 40 years from now, when the Spoken Word festival, or the Puppetry Festival, or the Crème Brule Festival wants to start up, it can. The Live Arts and Philly Fringe will simply make room under the umbrella of – I don’t know- the Philadelphia Arts Festivals? - and Philadelphia will become the art mecca it is moving towards being.
So the phrase of the day is – laying the groundwork
Exciting, huh? I’d stick around Philly for a while if I were you.
Your ex-administrator,
Lee Ann Etzold
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