Whether it's stewarding at a festival, writing for a magazine, or producing works of art, volunteering for creative projects is bound to get those juices flowing.

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Saturday Sep 06, 2008

Last Look Back at Edinburgh Festival Fringe '08

So its been a week since I took the 10 hour coach ride back to London.

I slept for 20 hours when I came back. My body just refused to wake up! I also promptly ate Real Meals and had a Proper Bath for the first time in 6 weeks.

Now, I guess the fundamental question is "Would I do it all again?".

Well, that's a difficult question. I reckon I'd like to do the festival bit again but the fit-up and get-out? Too tiring. A great one-off experience but not something I feel I could endure again.

Also, there's the question of money. Including travel, but after my wages, I spent £280 over 6 weeks. Not a bad amount considering but still, lack of money did mean that some people had to leave earlier than expected.

I've worked out that I saw at least 36 pieces of live theatre over three weeks for free which is more theatre than I'd seen in my entire life before Edinburgh. The majority of what I saw was good and I met plently of good people.

That's not to say it was all good. There was an accident involving a skylight and a young girl and continuous, numerous, disastrous and ridiculously stressful problems with the Fringe box office computer systems. C Venue's Box Office Manager ended up quitting halfway through the run and at several points, us lowly FOBOs were near tears and snappy.

However, amidst all that, I have learnt how to remain good-humoured when faced with customers who had queued for 40 minutes for refunds after a cancelled show, how to deal with members of the Press demanded to be treated "with respect" (by which they meant they wanted Royal Service), and customers who think that shouting will make them more likely to get freebies (it doesn't. It just gets you laughed at).

I'm making it sound awful. I won't lie; at times, it was frightful, but for every bad moment, there is a brilliant ones. One day, a boy pushed past me through a cordoned area, late for court. The old man behind him politely waited, saying "I'm in no rush, love, I'm retired you see, I have all day."

Another time, during a particularly horrendous day, a man pushed to the front of the queue saying "Excuse me, important matters!" The FOBO on duty was about to tell him sharply where to go when he said "You look like you're going to burst into tears. Pretend you're dealing with me and just take a few minutes, okay?". This little bif of kindness put her on a high for the rest of the day.

So yes, I'd do it again but next time, I'd like to go as a reviewer for Three Weeks, the daily review sheet, or even as part of a theatre company. I imagine that would be much less stressful! But at the same time, you wouldn't get that wonderful community-feel and you wouldn't feel quite as if you'd done (and survived) the festival's frantic pace in quite the same way.

One last point of interest, lookie: This pole was a very normal pole-shape at the beginning of the three weeks. By the end, it had tripled in size and was bulging from flyers at eye-level.

And that's the end of my FOBO days and I'll leave you with a picture of me in the C main's box office, now dismantled and lying in a skip, somewhere in Scotland.

Posted by Mei ( 12:00 AM )
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