6 replies to this topic

[Honoured Guest]

The Fringe ends this coming weekend without a flicker of a mention yet on this forum. Lyn Gardner wrote that the fringe theatre audience seems to be ageing. It could be prohibitively expensive to go there and "do the Fringe" or there could be various individual other reasons. Just indifference?

[poster J]

I went for a couple of days but only saw 3 shows as I was on quite a tight budget.  It was my first time there and while the atmosphere was great, I did find it irritating just how much people tried to push flyers in my face or plead with me to go to their show (I know and knew before I went that this is part of the Fringe, but I didn't realise just how irritating I'd find it).  There did definitely seem to be an older crowd there, there was a huge age span amongst the audience in all the shows I saw.  Tickets were more expensive than I thought necessary for some things, and of the 3 shows I went to only 1 was a sell out.

[Honoured Guest]

I hope you enjoyed the shows you saw and the experience of it! I agree that it helps to develop a personal flyer interaction technique. The "wrong" part of mine is that i shun flyers if I know I definitely won't go to the show - either because it doesn't appeal or because I've already decided or booked where I'm going. Some flyer-givers get very annoyed at this rejection, particularly towards the end of their run when they know how much money they've lost. I remember a furious Australasian flyer-giver hurling abuse at me for being English when I refused to take a flyer from her on the penultimate afternoon of the Fringe festival despite her pleading that they'd cut their ticket price to just £1!

[poster J]

Honoured Guest, on 25 August 2012 - 01:44 PM, said:

I hope you enjoyed the shows you saw and the experience of it! I agree that it helps to develop a personal flyer interaction technique. The "wrong" part of mine is that i shun flyers if I know I definitely won't go to the show - either because it doesn't appeal or because I've already decided or booked where I'm going. Some flyer-givers get very annoyed at this rejection, particularly towards the end of their run when they know how much money they've lost. I remember a furious Australasian flyer-giver hurling abuse at me for being English when I refused to take a flyer from her on the penultimate afternoon of the Fringe festival despite her pleading that they'd cut their ticket price to just £1!

I did thanks

And I'm the same, I didn't take any flyers for shows that didn't appeal or when I'd already something booked for that day/evening.  I have to say most people I encountered were fine with this - a polite 'no thank you' shouldn't be anything to get annoyed about.  I also sometimes refuse to take flyers from people who try too hard to sell their show!

[QuincyMD]

Wear a lanyard if you want to avoid the leafleters, they then think you are a local and know that you will tell them to "&&&& off" if they come anywhere near you.


A tip for future years - if you are on a tight budget then there is normally a half price ticket booth kicking about.

[poster J]

QuincyMD, on 26 August 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

A tip for future years - if you are on a tight budget then there is normally a half price ticket booth kicking about.

Yes, I saw, there wasn't much at it that interested me and fitted the gaps in my schedule.  Spent my time watching street performances instead.

[BAGibb]

Personal experice as a performer giving out flyers this year...Trick is to just lose yourself. Yes it can be annoying, but it's all part of the Fringe experience. To be honest there were days where I didnt want to stand out yelling about a show to people who sometimes try not to acknowledge your existence (which is fine, all part of the job). But there are tactics to flyering it seems, depending on who you're trying to target. If a flyerer stands out for a negative reason then they really are the minority when compared to the thousands of others trying to sell their show and how they just accept that people are too busy to take a flyer/acknowledge etc.