With Perth Fringe World festival 2019 done & dusted, Jamie & Kari would like to publish this shameless plug about what we consider to be our quite successful foray as first-time event presenters in our six years of having been involved in some capacity with this festival. Obviously, last year’s negative feedback from some trusted acquaintances and the unfortunate demise of a respected and seasoned events management company were a significant and bona fide deterrent, but we were determined to give it a crack on our own merits; qualifications, acquired knowledge and experience gleaned over those last six years. And so, our new business InjeKtive, invested its (very) limited capital and used this festival platform as a ‘soft launch’ into the festival circuit as a presenter, promoter and sub-contracting venture. No external funding was granted, nor sourced, for this venture although there was a generous degree of in-kind sponsorship from the various breweries and wineries supplying the products for our tasting shows.
We presented (9) x ‘Brewed Laughter’ shows and (4) x ‘Uncorked Comedy’ shows at two independent venues; eight at The Lucky Shag in Elizabeth Quay and five at the SONAR room in Fremantle. All eight shows at the Lucky Shag (60 pax) were sold out and while attendance at the larger room in Freo (140 pax) averaged only 49 %, these audiences were more than adequate to make the shows work (and pay the hired talent).
Each one-hour show involved a different comedian host who were all paid very well per show for their contributions, hence sharing the love across a diverse range of local and touring talents. InjeKtive also paid a subcontractor a decent chunk for their role in managing the room, volunteer door staff and tech requirements of a number of these shows, further sharing the socio-cultural and economic benefits amongst the arts community. Furthermore, InjeKtive paid royalties for the rights to stage these shows which were not insignificant to the owner of the intellectual property of the shows presented.
We at InjeKtive still doubled our financial investment into this festival despite the majority of the revenue generated being spent on the aforementioned above. We were particularly lucky with the fact that we were actually in the black financially before the first show was presented; having sold enough early release tickets to cover venue registration/hire and the two event registrations required to participate in the festival.
We thoroughly recommend ensuring the ‘early release’ option by registering events prior to that deadline. This assuredly and undoubtedly helps one relax and place extra focus on the ‘one-per centers’, that is those enhancements that serve towards ‘polishing’ the customer experience.
We are evaluating this as a win-win scenario for all stakeholders involved and wish to advise that we are willing, able and job ready to facilitate our services and expertise to any and all artists, of any genre, who, in future festivals, might wish to concentrate on their artistic presentations and leave the logistics, financial support, stakeholder engagement and overall event management package to us at InjeKtive for a very reasonable and mutually agreed fee.
InjeKtive would also like to take this opportunity to whole-heartedly thank all artists, venue staff, sub-contractors and volunteers who participated in our first venture as bona fide festival act presenters. You have all now been paid, and you all exceeded your pay grades, but I like to think that your participation also enhanced your festival experience as well as your professional development. A huge thank-you, lastly but not least, to the Fringe World hub-producers and customer service team whose advice and assistance was invaluable for our successful debut.
InjeKtive 