Information for Performers

WELCOME

Congratulations on being selected for the 2018 Pittsburgh Fringe Festival! We want to to help make your show successful. We will do all we can to make the Festival an overwhelming success, and we look to you, our participants, to help build buzz around the community and help drive ticket sales and donations to keep the Fringe Festival going for years to come.  Because we don’t curate, we are not eligible for most of the grants in the Pittsburgh area, so we are an entirely volunteer run organization.  Our volunteers believe in the work that we are doing, and in the work that you are doing, and want to help you succeed.  We are proud to work with such talented artists, and we are thrilled to bring such innovation and creativity to Pittsburgh.

2018 DATES FOR PERFORMERS TO REMEMBER:

January 31st:
  • Participation Fee Due AND Participant Agreement Due ​ (We will email you your individualized electronic contact to sign, and an invoice for electronic payment over the next week or two.)
  • IRS W-9 Form Due - use this link to electronically sign and turn in your W-9 Form - How EASY!   https://app.hellosign.com/s/20158ea0
  • Website and Brochure requirements Due.  (Please let us know if you need more time, but you may miss our initial press launch if we don’t receive it on time.)
  • PR requirements Due (you can continue to give us more information later, but anything past this may miss our initial press release).
February 7th: February 21st: March 1st: March 8th: April 4-5th:
  • Rehearsals will be scheduled over these dates.
April 6th, 7th and 8th:
  • The FESTIVAL!
Stay Tuned for...
  • Website and Brochure proofs
  • Subgroups and stories for Social Media
  • Tech Questionnaire
  • Rehearsal Scheduling
  • Artist Pass information request (cast and crew names; photos)

TICKET PRICES

There are 3 new ticket related items that we want to inform you about.  Most of these were implemented last year, but because some of you are returning from past years, we will review them:

  1. New last year, we have instituted a second lower price band for shorter shows, college and teen fringe, and any other show that thinks the regular price band is too high.  The details are below.  On your contract, you just select the price band that you want.  If your show is 40 minutes or under, you must select the lower price band.  (There were a few instances in the past, where patrons paid full price for a very short show, and were very upset.  We think this new pricing strategy will be fairer to patrons, and gives our shows more flexibility to select their prices.)  If you must select the lower price band, because of the length of your show, you may deduct 25% from your participation fee.  
  2. Also new last year, and partially because of the new price band, we are changing how tickets are paid out.  Last year was a nice simple $6 per ticket or pass entry.  This year it will be a bit more complicated, but it will allow folks to earn more.  We thought we would have a lot more pass users last year, but we didn’t.  So we want to make sure you make more money if patrons pay full price.
  3. New this year is the fact that we will (for the second year in a row) be raising the money per ticket that artists receive.  Last year we gave 60%, but this year we so badly want to give our artists more money that we are taking the leap of faith to raise it to 70%.  So hopefully we can all get a lot more folks out to shows this year and make that up in larger audiences.  (Remember, because we don’t curate we do not qualify for the usual local grants, and rely heavily on this smaller amount of the ticket sales to make the festival work.)
  4. And new last year (in the ticket category anyways), is the Fringe Button.  We just brought back the button last year, but it was OPTIONAL and worked pretty well.  Here is how that works.   If patrons buy a button for $5, they will receive a small discount to shows.  Here are some of the reasons for bringing back the button:
    1. This will allow patrons, who want to see more shows, a cheaper discount option than buying a whole pass.  (Button holders will receive a $3 discount on tickets.)
    2. Patrons will also receive other discounts and advantages to the buttons (like a 10% discount at a local restaurant).  We hope this discount will extend past the festival weekend, and endure us to local businesses.
    3. We feel merchants in the area will realize how much business the fringe brings to their area, by actually seeing evidence of Fringe patrons wearing buttons while buying items in their stores.  (So help us by wearing a Fringe button or pass when you shop around locally.)
    4. We see that this has begun to help us build the fringe community.  We noticed at other fringe’s that partons are more likely to start a conversation about the festival when they can visually identify that the other person has also attended fringe shows.  
    5. By selling buttons in advance at local merchants, we hope to use it as an additional form of early marketing to the locals in the area.
    6. And because some of our best crazed fringe fans love collecting buttons!​
The two price bands are as follows:
Regular Price Band
  1. Ticket prices are $15.  (70% = $10.50)
  2. Fringe Button discount minus $3 = $12 (70% = $8.40)
  3. Artists receive 70% of actual paid price (Ticket price minus any discounts), or flat fee as indicated below for paying pass entries.
  4. Day and weekend passes = $6 per paid pass entry.  (Flat $6 per pass entry.)
  5. This does not include performer rush passes, VIP passes, Press passes, Industry passes, Volunteer passes or other comp tickets.
Lower Price Band
  1. Ticket prices $8.  (70% = $5.60)
  2. Fringe Button discount minus $3 = $5  (70% = $3.50)
  3. Artists receive 70% of actual paid price (Ticket price minus any discounts), or flat fee as indicated below for paying pass entries.
  4. Day and weekend passses = $3 per paid pass entry. (Flat $3 per pass entry.)
  5. This does not include performer rush passes, VIP passes, Press passes, Industry passes, Volunteer passes or other comp tickets.

Artist Rush Tickets


We know that when you attend fringe festivals, it is important for you to grow and learn by seeing shows, and to grow your networking circles.  Because of this, we allow all artists to attend each other’s shows on a stand-by or rush basis.  This means that after all paying customers have entered the show, any remaining seats will be available for artists, and volunteers.  You will be required to show your Pittsburgh Fringe artist pass.  (We will ask you for this information closer to the festival so we can create these passes.)

PROMOTION AND PROGRAM INFORMATION

We want to help you market your show.  While the marketing of the show is ultimately your responsibility, we do a number things festival wide to help you market your show.  But we need you to help us.  We need information for the website, brochure, and press releases about your show.  We have detailed the information that we need below.  If you have any questions, or need help creating an image - please let us know.  

Image Policy:
  • Even though we will not censor Fringe content (within laws), all published materials must be PG rated.
  • Unless your image is just your logo, please avoid putting text on your images.  Some social media outlets reject images with text, as they prefer the text in the posts so robots can read the text to the blind.  So it is best to avoid text on your images.
For the Website:
  • 3x3 in. 72 DPI image
  • Cast/crew list (you can update this later)
  • 60 word description of your company (you can add this later if you want)
  • 60-100 word description of your show (ideally use brochure show description here to be consistent, but you can add reviews or other helpful information to sell your show).
  • URL and any social media tags or addresses
  • USE THIS FORM at the below link to give us this information: https://form.jotform.com/80157705284155
For Final Program Brochure:
  • 60 word description
  • 3x3 in. 300 dpi image (this does not guarantee the final image will be this size)
  • Age restrictions and other applicable information (if changed from your original application)
  • USE THIS FORM at the below link to give us this information: https://form.jotform.com/80158072884159
For Press Releases and other PR:
We will do general PR for the festival, including a press release to local press.  Please go through our PR guy to make sure we are not bombarding the large papers.  Because of this we have had great coverage in the past.  He covers the large papers (Trib, Post-Gazette, and City Paper), and some radio.  But there are plenty of smaller neighborhood papers and university papers that we welcome you to reach out to!

We need the following for our PR efforts:
  • 60 word description (use brochure show description here to be consistent).
  • Photo Requirements: .jpg format files that are approximately 10mb file size when open. That’s roughly 200 dpi at 9 inches x 12 inches for the image dimensions.  
  • URL and any social media tags or addresses
  • NOTE: The media selects the images they want to use.  If you give us amazing images, you are much more likely to see your image in a paper.
  • USE THIS FORM at the below link to give us this information: https://form.jotform.com/80158320084147 ​
Program Advertisements:
These are not required.  This is additional advertising you may choose to buy, but only if you want.  To help our performers, we offer very large discounts, and additional discounts for reserving pages early.  
  1. Early Bird Fringer Rate: Confirm and Pay by Feb. 7th, and design due by Feb. 28th
  2. Regular Fringer Rate: Confirm and Pay by March 1st, and design due by March 8th

Link to form to commit to purchasing ad: https://form.jotform.com/80158169484162

  • Full page, 5x8 in. - $120 Early Bird Fringer Rate; $240 Fringer Rate (Orig. $480 - Represents a 60% discount on the ⅛ page size)
  • ½ Page, 5x4 in. - $90 Early Bird Fringer Rate; $180 Fringer Rate (Orig. $360 - Represents a 40% discount on the ⅛ page size)
  • ¼ Page, 2.5x4 in. -$60 Early Bird Fringer Rate; $120 Fringer Rate (Orig. $240 - Represents a 20% discount on the ⅛ page size)
  • ¼ Page, 5x2 in. - $60 Early Bird Fringer Rate; $120 Fringer Rate (Orig. $240 - Represents a 20% discount on the ⅛ page size)
  • ⅛ Page, 2.5x2 in. - $40 Early Bird Fringer Rate; $75 Fringer Rate (Orig. $150 - Represents a 0% discount on the ⅛ page size)

VENUE INFORMATION


We need to wait to slot shows until after we receive everyone’s contracts and participation fees back on January 31st.  Once we confirm your venue, dates, and time with you, we will add that to the website information, and brochure information.  We understand that if you purchase a program advertisement you will need to add your to venue dates and times to the design.  If we do not give you the information in time for you to do this, we are happy to extend the deadline.  Just talk with us about your needs.

If anything about the length of your show has changed, or the number of performances has changed, please let us know before January 31st, so we can get your show adequately slotted the first time.  We are planning on a 10 minute load out, and 20 minute load in between shows.  If you need more or less than that, please let us know.  Closer to the festival, you will receive a technical questionnaire so we can make sure you have what you need for your show.

Each venue is shared with other participants.  There will be minimal if any storage space.  Please remember that this festival is for the adventurous. There may be no dressing rooms or backstage space. Be adaptable!

Shows will run from Friday, starting between 3 and  5pm until approximately 11:30pm.  Saturday shows will run from 11am to 11:30pm, and Sunday shows will run from 11am to approximately 9:30pm.  We hope to have our festival award ceremony start at 10:30pm (with the location open for hanging out from 9pm - 11:30pm).  Pittsburgh in the Round not only reviews many of our shows, but selects the award winners.  Learn more about them at: http://www.pghintheround.com/

Rehearsals will be the Wednesday and Thursday evenings prior to our start on Friday, and we will reserve a few slots for national performers on Friday morning.  Closer to the time, we will ask you what your availability is for rehearsals and do our best to schedule everyone according to your needs. (However, we can make no guarantees.  The more time you leave available for rehearsals, the more likely we will be able to make it work.)

Through the BYOV or Found Space category, we were hoping to encourage interesting found space venues, as one of our best show in 2016 and runner up last year used an cool found venues.  Fringe’s are known for their weird quirky show locations, and we would love to have more of this.  If you are thinking a cool location would really help your show, we have identified several locations that could potentially be “found” spaces.  For example:

1. a beautiful victorian bed and breakfast lobby area
2. a swimming pool
3. a smokey dingy basement room of a smoking bar (real cigarette smoke in the air)
4. a very small brewery pub (might be difficult to do ticketing here, unless we do it off hours)
5. An old stone basement of the bed and breakfast (was used for two shows in 2017)
6. possibly an apartment, but it might be difficult to get until the last minute when they are sure no one will rent it
7. A hospital is close by…. So maybe something interesting could happen there.
8. An aviary is close by…. So maybe something interesting could happen there.
FYI: these are not confirmed found spaces, as we can’t ask without a specific show in mind.  But we can put you in touch with the venue to ask, if you think that would work for your show.  If there are additional fees needed for the found space, you will have to be responsible for those fees.  That is why we are charging the lower, no tech fee for these found spaces.

LEGAL STUFF

  1. We will need your signed Participation Agreement and Participation fee to finalize your show information.   You will be receiving this via email.  For the participation fee we will be sending an invoice that we hope will allow you to pay electronically.  We would like all these by January 31st, so we can slot you in your venue and start your publicity.  
  2. We need your W-9 form before we pay you your box office income.  It can be super annoying to print, fill out and mail these, so we have worked with HelloSign, to make super simple easy to fill out W-9 form that you can legally sign electronically.  Just click on the link, fill out the form, and if all goes well through the magic of technology, we will have your filled out W-9 form!​

Still to come for 2018:

Rehearsal Schedule

Click this link to give us your rehearsal availability: https://form.jotform.com/80157488584166

​Tech Questions

Want to fill out the form for close to the festival tech update? 2018 link coming later!

​Brochure Proof Link

Need to find the link to proof your brochure?  Your brochure proof should have come by email.  Let us know if you can't find it. ​​We will email you a screenshot of your part in the brochure.  Then you can use the following form to tell us about any necessary changes, or if everything is fine!  https://form.jotform.com/80697619947174

Logos for your publicity

Feel free to use our logo in your publicity.  Keep the colors and dimensions as close as you can.  Below are a few different types of files of the logo.  If you need something else, or have a question, please email us.
logo_clear_background.png
File Size: 179 kb
File Type: png
Download File
logo_print_white.tif
File Size: 26829 kb
File Type: tif
Download File
logo_web.psd
File Size: 6646 kb
File Type: psd
Download File

​Social Media and other Publicity

This is 2017 info to give you an idea of what is coming up!

Here are some things we need to help market your show.  Below is a form that allows you to tell us any weird or awesome things about your show.  You can also add links for us to put on our website, or anything else that could be possible for us to use for publicity.  It may be an interesting tidbit that we can use for a tweet, or a link to a video marketing your show.  Or you just made a new Instagram account, and you now want us to link to it.  Feel free to use this form as little or as much as you want to keep us updated on things, and give us ideas for marketing your shows.

Subgroups - Are there certain groups or organizations that are likely to enjoy your show? List your ideas here. We can work together to try to market to corresponding groups.

Idea: Is your show about surviving cancer? Then you might want to contact a cancer survivor network. There are a lot of different social groups organized locally for all sorts of different things. Show about knitting? Let's find knitting organizations to tell about your show.  Look on Meetup.com or facebook for these corresponding groups. But let us know too, in case we know of something specific!

Wait for 2018 links!