A bit of walking, a bit of Garden pottering, and a lot of chatting. Lovely.
I had a funny anecdote from last night to relay, but I’m too tired right now. Tomorrow. Maybe. I’m trying to drag my sleep pattern into Fringe mode.
Day One of another month-long assault… a self-contained reminder of all that’s good and bad about The Garden.
They’ve not quite figured out the queues for the Spiegeltent yet; the first session of Cantina wound up with twin snakes of grumpy patrons after the doors opened a lazy 45 minutes late. This had the knock-on effect of making (the wonderful, wonderful) Jess Ribeiro start late, and she was given the early wind-up to help the next show start on time. Harrumph.
My word, there was some booze flowing there tonight, though. Bloody freezing it was, too.
So – another year, another Fringe… and, as has been the case for the past couple of years, I’ve been very blasé about the lead-up… I picked up the Guide late, only finished plugging data into The Shortlist spreadsheet last weekend, and have only stuck in a solitary round of tickets so far.
But, less than an hour from the start of my first show of the year, I’m getting a bit excited :)
Last night saw The Garden’s opening party; and, for as much as I go on about how The Garden is having an adverse affect on the Fringe, it’s always a little bit of a thrill to wander into The Garden during this week before the opening parade (or, as I like to call it, “Pre-Week”). And so Irene and I wandered around the new, seemingly more spacious, layout, mentally making notes on the locations of the venues, gawking with nervous glee at the FlyMotion Bubbles of Fun, and spotting and renaming all the bars – the Cinderella Bar, the Broom-broom Bar, the Barbar Bar. There’s a more professional feel about the place that somehow manages to feel more gaudy… but that’s offset by the deckchairs, which are ace.
So – a reasonable place to spend much of the next week, then.
Other snippets before the Fringe gets underway and I get drowned in a torrent of posts… The Adelaide Post picked one of my recent posts as part of their series of Fringe-related posts, which was mighty enchuffening. And I got not one, but two massive grins from spotting snippets of this blog in the Guide this year, with Freefall and So You Think You Can Get F#%ked Up borrowing my words… which is awesome. I love the idea that my words may (emphasis on the “may”) help a performer :)