The Adelaide Fringe Festival is in hot water on social media after British comedian and Fringe performer Alexis Dubus criticised the event as having forgotten its roots and being driven by “greed and complacency”.
As ABC News reports, Dubus took to Facebook to issue a lengthy missive in which he argues the annual festival has lost its “exciting, exuberant, experimental” nature and supplanted it with crowds more interested in drinking than engaging.
“Something’s not right here any more,” he wrote on Facebook. “When I first came here in 2009 it felt like a genuinely experimental and exciting creative hub, with audiences seeking out tucked-away venues and subversive shows.”
“Having visited Adelaide before, I was blown away by how much this sleepy town got behind the weird and the wonderful offerings that Fringe threw at them. Seven years on and those people seem to have vanished.”
“Throughout a bustling Fringe World Festival in Perth I watched my Adelaide pre-sales remain at 7 for most of the month, leaping up to a grand total of 8 a month later.”
“I relied on the old ‘Adelaide folks don’t pre-book’ mantra, but looking at the most depressing spreadsheet I’ve ever witnessed in 8 years of doing festivals, I’m realising they no longer walk up to shows either.”
Dubus cites lacklustre ticket sales for shows from other performers before arguing that the downturn is largely the result of a change in “Fringe-goers” who are “choosing soulless, mass-produced bollocks over thoughtful, innovative works in quirky spaces”.
“I’m not sure what can actually be changed at an open access festival that’s now seemingly allowed greed and complacency to dictate its direction, but part of the change has to be the attitude of Fringe-goers, who need to re-evaulate the meaning of ‘fringe’,” he wrote.
Speaking to ABC News, Fringe Festival director Heather Croall claimed this year’s event is likely to see record-breaking sales, with the majority of Fringe-goers attending headline events like the Garden of Unearthly Delights.
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“We’re actually on track to have a bumper record year of ticket sales and what we’re seeing is 60 per cent of the tickets are in the Garden of Unearthly Delights and the Croquet Club and Gluttony… and around 40 per cent are in the smaller, independent venues which is actually a very good split,” she said.
According to Croall, smaller events had previously only accounted for 20 percent of ticket sales. However, the festival director suggested Dubus’ post is actually a positive for the event.
“Maybe this will help Adelaide audiences remember that there’s hundreds of venues out there and we really encourage everyone to help us come home strong this Fringe because we want to break the record and make sure the artists have a good time in Adelaide and come back again,” she said.
According to comedy industry outlet Chortle, Dubus is not alone in his boycott of the world’s second-biggest fringe festival. Brendon Burns and Marcel Lucont have both vowed never to return to the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
