The Fringe-For-All was of course last night.

Somehow the Cafe Campus leads to excess. When it was at more Fringe-like venues, such as the P-Scene and the McGill ballroom, the companies would leave one flyer on each chair, and maybe try to get you as you came or went. But at the Cafe Campus, the flyers from the companies were everywhere, almost as if they had just been flung into the air to land wherever.

Needless to say, there were an awful lot of flyers sitting around after the show.

Last year, some companies went through the flotsam, recovering their own flyers, which in some cases can be quite fancy. But as far as I know, the rest was garbage.

Last night, I decided I wouldn't let that happen again, so I collected all the flyers remaining, at least the ones without beer spills, and brought them home to sort. It was quite a load. In a number of instances, I picked up a pile of the same flyers, almost as if the companies couldn't figure out what to do with them, so they just placed them somewhere. I saw no companies making an effort to recover their own flyers last night.

All told, there were flyers from 20 companies, plus some flyers from the Fringe itself calling for volunteers. Interestingly, not all companies had flyers, since there were 31 acts that did excerpts. And while not all of the acts on the program leafletted, there were flyers from Shakti who isn't likely to be in town until a day or two before the Fringe starts.

For the companies that I like, I imagine I'll spread some of the flyers around. As for the rest, I guess I'll return them at the opening night party on June 9th.

And a warning. The Beer Tent gets tidied up each night, and anything on the tables gets tossed. Last year, after taping their flyers to every available surface in the Beer Tent during opening night, the companies left piles of flyers loose everywhere. And those became garbage during the clean up. So it's wasteful to just leave piles of flyers around at random.

For that matter, considering the near-slaughter of the flyers lastnight, I question the effectiveness of leaving flyers around. The best acts work the crowd, handing out the flyers to individuals. Thus a connection is made at that instant. Otherwise, it can be difficult to remember the show that goes with the flyer. And I know I've been known to go to a show merely on the basis of meeting one of the performers.

May 30, 2000