Midlands Fringe organisers delighted with successful first event and already looking ahead to future
The organisers of the inaugural Midlands Fringe Festival have shared their pride at the success of the first event, which has drawn big crowds and plenty of positive feedback.
The Midlands Fringe Festival brought three days of a wide range of acts to three venues across Wolverhampton, with events taking place at KTeas Cafe on St Georges Parade, The Qattery on Victoria Street and the Lych Gate Tavern, as well as two headline shows at the Arena Theatre on Wulfruna Street.
From a horror special called Renfield to an improvisational event around dating to tales of fatherhood and an indie music dance-off, there was something for everyone, with Lucy Porter and Stephen K Amos playing to large and enthusiastic audiences at the Arena Theatre on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The Midlands Fringe Festival was set up with a nod to Edinburgh's famous Fringe, as a way of providing all the thrills of the popular festival without the cost of travelling and staying in the Scottish capital and to help to promote the artistic scene in Wolverhampton and the surrounding area.
It was organised by Wolverhampton arts collective Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists and supported using just under £9,000 in public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Emma Purshouse, who is an organiser and had also been poet laureate for the city, said the event had far exceeded the expectations of her and her Pandemonialist colleagues Dave Pitt and Steve Pottinger.
She said: "It's been brilliant as we've had full houses at KTeas Cafe and there was even a standing ovation at the last act of the day there, and we've had great turnouts at the other venues, so we're really pleased.
"The audiences have been great as they've really been up for it and as soon as the act gets going, you feel like they're onside and wanting them to do well, so it's been lovely and they've been really generous with the pay-as-you-wish hat as well.
"We were just really hoping to get audiences in and we'd worked really hard to get them in, but we've also found that some of the acts have brought their own audience as well, so people have really got behind it and we've seen people posting about how much they've enjoyed it on social media, so it's really been very popular."
Ms Purshouse said that while she and her colleagues were pleased with the first year, they were already looking ahead to future events and taking notes on what they felt had worked and what could be better next time.
She said: "There's lots of things to think about and we've enjoyed ourselves, but we'd love it to grow year on year as we have been getting a real buzz out of it."
