Dr. Horrible @ the Calgary Fringe Festival

Hi all!

I spent the afternoon at the Calgary Fringe Festival. We saw Dr. Horrible, the Joss Whedon musical comedy/drama and it was great! I highly recommend it to everyone.

However, it was rather a sad day, in that - for someone who is used to the huge crowds and incredible success of the Edmonton Fringe Festival - there was hardly anyone around. Yes, Dr. Horrible was full, but that's because it's an extremely popular show in its own right, without the Fringe. Joss Whedon has many fans. I mean, we were at the main ticket tent at 4pm on a holiday Monday, and there were 10 people there. We bought tickets to Dr. Horrible less than an hour before show time? In Edmonton, it would have been sold out already - ok, good for us, but... bad for Calgary Fringe Festival. We talked to some performers from another show ("Crossover") who were waiting for the same bus as we were - and they were sad to say that other shows are not getting the same response as Dr. Horrible.

Why is this so? this is the 5th or 6th Calgary Fringe Festival, yet nobody in Calgary seems to know it's happening. The Media doesn't mention it. I haven't heard about it on TV, or Radio, or in the main newspapers. Only FFWD magazine had info, and a single-fold pullout of Festival information. If Calgarians want their festivals to be successful, they need to talk to their newspapers and TV and radio stations, and get them to provide the information, because they sure as hell arent' doing it now.

To Calgary Media: shame on you! You aren't doing your jobs. Especially TV. You keep trumpeting that we need local TV so people will know what's going on, but - I've lived in Calgary for 14 years now, and the only reason I know about stuff like this is word of mouth. The Media doesn't care about it. If it isn't Stampede, it isn't important to them.