The pause button has been hit on the Atlantic Fringe Festival.
Ken Pinto, the festival’s artistic director, has decided to put it on hold for two years while he focuses on Titanic 100. Needless to say, prospective Fringe-goers and participants are not happy.
Michael McPhee, an actor, producer and participant in past Fringe shows, has begun rallying people online. Some suggestions so far are to go to the Board of Directors for the Atlantic Fringe Festival, or start another one.
The angry virtual mob has taken to an online poll to decide when they should hold a community meeting about what to do. A venue for the meeting has not been chosen, but we will update when the meeting time and place are set.
Pinto has been the subject of criticism concerning the festival before. Last September, Fringe performer Mikeala Dyke wrote an open letter giving Pinto a scathing review of her own. Dyke said that Pinto would not address the issue of not alerting people to when shows were cancelled and dismissed her complaints. She said she will not be returning for future festivals.
Updates to come.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.
Sounds like a good opportunity for someone new to show case their organization skills, perhaps they can learn from Mr Pinto’s problems.
The Board of Fringe has the responsibility to ensure that the festival goes forward, even though Ken Pinto is involved in another undertaking. The expertise is there, the sponsorship will be there and the artists will be there. It is bigger than a single person.
I agree that the Fringe should go ahead. One person’s participation should NOT stop the Festival in its tracks.
What happened to the other 5 comments ? When did they disappear ?