Before I began my internship I did not realize all that went into planning a festival, especially a multi-day, multi-venue BEAST like the Scranton Fringe Festival. I imagined that I would simply be helping out with scheduling and arrangements for the festival, but I was very mistaken.
A festival can’t happen without a level of outreach, so I was out in the public frequently at events like Pride on the Mountain and Arts on the Square talking to people about the Fringe, passing out festival guides, and answering any questions people had.
Beyond outreach, I spent a fair amount of time making the festival tickets available online. While it wasn’t a mentally taxing job, it was tedious. The festival has 13 venues this year, each venue has 2-5 shows, and each show has two types of tickets available for sale. Although this was not the most fun task, it was a necessary evil.
At the beginning of my summer I worked on obtaining Button Partners for the festival. Button Partners are local, downtown businesses that offer Fringe button holders a specific discount. The Button Partners are featured in the guide, which is heavily relied on by people attending the festival from out of town. This year the festival has 18 Button Partners!
Other highlights of my summer with the Fringe include interviewing performers, working on social media, blog writing, and assisting with a StorySlam event, a show announcement party, and a fancy cocktail party.
Although the summer is over, my internship isn’t! I’ll be working with the Fringe until the week of the festival, September 27th-October 1st.
Your internship sounds like a lot of tedious work, as was mine so I can relate. It is hard to imagine all the little tasks that go on behind the scenes to build these type of events. I hope you still enjoy your internship and I hope to attend one of the shows performed during Fringe.
thanks for sharing this