At the start of each spring, the Melbourne Fringe Festival hits town, bringing a massive program of shows and events across all performance art genres. The festival is a chance for independent artists to mount contemporary work and connect it with audiences who want something unusual. This year, the North Melbourne Town Hall will again play host to the Fringe Hub, and Jayne Lovelock, whose first year as CEO last year was a massive success, will again be at the helm.
As Lovelock tells me, this year, in response to feedback from artists, the Fringe team has been focused on the core values of providing a presentation platform for artists and effective support for that platform. Earlier in the year, they ran a mentorship program for producers and a series of forums discussing strategies for putting on new work. “Things that are quite practical, like how to remount your work; things like how to tour your work; things like how to speak to the press,” Lovelock says.
They've also endeavoured to venture beyond the inner city. “For the first time we ran a program called Melbourne Fringe On Tour, where we took shows from last year's festival through regional and outer-metropolitan Victoria,” she explains. “It was really sensational, being able to get interesting and quite contemporary work to regional venues, but also for artists being able to perform to new audiences and experience the process of touring.”
Following on from the bevy of events in celebration of the Fringe's 30th birthday last year, this year's festival has another innovative Creative Program lined up. The focus is artists' interaction with the digital world. “We've got a suite of programs that really touch on the way artists are starting to engage with digital spaces and social media,” Lovelock says. “The idea of a virtual presence, not just as a publicity tool, but as part of their practice.”
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Digital Gardens, for example, will be presented in massive marquees in City Square and in the City of Stonnington and will allows for passersby to engage as they please. “We've worked with several independent game designers and matched them up with independent artists that are producing work as part of the festival, and together they've developed input into a non-combative, immersive, gaming experience,” Lovelock says of the concept.
“It was an opportunity to get two kinds of artists that don't always work together to create something together.”
This genre-bending collaboration reflects the independent projects submitted to the festival this year, Lovelock says. “I think that the definition of art-form is blurring for artists. And that's what is really exciting about being part of a multi-arts festival. More and more we find artists coming to us with work about which they genuinely ask, 'What category of the festival should I put this in?' and we have to tell them that 'Oh, it's definitely up to you'.”
