Vancouver Fringe Festival: the final countdown, your thoughts and the rice krispie incident

When David Jordan contacted me about something that Simon Ogden had suggested, my first thought was “what?” Simon’s idea was to review every show in this year’s Fringe Festival over the first weekend. When I told my Plank colleagues about this, they too went “what?”

You mean every show?

Then I met with David and Simon and we started talking about a team of reviewers flooding the festival, Plank Magazine hosting the online forum and getting people talking on the site, debating the shows and generally hurting each others feelings and, man, was on board for that. And so were my colleagues and so, thankfully, are many of you.

This has been just an unbelievably fun adventure for all of us in Plankland. One of my colleagues phoned me on her way home to say how energized she was from the whole experience. And that energy is coming from all of you who have participated in the forums or who have just dropped by to read a few reviews before heading out to the Festival and, of course, from the performers themselves.

We want to also thank our Fringe reviewers who did such fantastic work: Cathy, Ingrid, Miranda, Rachel, Tyson and, of course, Simon! We also want to thank David Jordan and his team and the volunteers.

But it’s not over yet! We still have the final weekend ahead. It’s kind of hard to keep track of all 68 shows – and their reviews – across the site so, if you feel so inclined, why don’t you post your top experience, worst nightmare or general thoughts below. I know David and his team will be just as interested as we are. And please, keep in the spirit of things and don’t shill for your own show.

As for me, my high-point would be having my faith restored in the one-person show by Barry Smith, Christina Sicoli and TJ Dawe.

The low-point would have to be the “incident” last night at the Fringe Club over the Rice Krispie square. I do apologize to anyone who witnessed it but I think you could see for yourselves how unreasonable Alex was being. I really hope Heather will reconsider the ban from the club for the weekend. For me that is, Alex should remain banned.

Get out there and enjoy the Fringe!

[img_assist|nid=478|title=Hey Alex, want some?|desc=|link=none|align=center|width=353|height=288]