Fifth Rochester Fringe Festival Breaks Records, Changes Name

For 10 days from Thursday, September 15 through Saturday, September 24, the 2016 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival drew more than an estimated* 67,000 visitors (compared to 63,000 in 2015) to downtown Rochester to celebrate artistic expression in all of its forms. Ticket sales of over $400,000 also broke records, and the more than 500 performances and events - a third of which were free - at 20+ venues included more sell-outs, more out-of-town productions, more college participation, and more site-specific shows than ever before.

"We are thrilled that - despite rain on both weekends - we had record-breaking engagement from audiences and artists alike," says Founding Festival Producer Erica Fee. "We also like to push the creative envelope a little more each year, and our fifth Fringe definitely did that."

That celebration of Rochester's creative spirit is what drew First Niagara to become title sponsor for the festival's first five years, and the bank's new owners seem to find it just as compelling.

"We're very pleased to announce that in 2017, this amazing showcase for our community and the arts will be named the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival," KeyBank Rochester Market President James Barger says. "Those who've worked so hard to make the Fringe a success share a deep commitment to this community. The same goes at KeyBank. Wherever we do business, we make a commitment to helping the local community thrive. We back that up by supporting local agencies and businesses. We volunteer our time. We donate to worthy causes. And we show strong support for the institutions that are such an integral part of a thriving community. The Fringe will continue to be a catalyst to support Rochester's growth and revitalization, and we're thrilled to play our part in helping to make that happen."

Thousands cheered Fringe's 2016 free, outdoor spectacle, STREB Extreme Action Company, on September 16th's Friday on the Fringe. Atop three stages at Parcel 5, the troupe of ten Extreme Action Heroes - choreographed by Rochester native Elizabeth Streb - jumped on, climbed up, dove from, and careened around huge "invented hardware" with jaw-dropping abandon, while their images were projected on surrounding buildings. ("I too was gob-smacked...the act was a mind-blowing spectacle," reported Frank DeBlase, CITY Newspaper.) The 5 - 11 PM event also featured searchlights, a bevy of food trucks, and live music from The Buddahood, Sisters of Murphy, the UR YellowJackets, and KOPPS.

That same evening, comedian, actor and best-selling author Patton Oswalt - in his first major performance since his wife's unexpected death in May - drew a large and enthusiastic audience to Kodak Hall. Oswalt was able to accept his writing Emmy (for Netflix's Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping) in person due to rescheduling his original Sunday, September 19th Fringe date.

Back at Parcel 5 for Saturday on the Fringe, only one of three scheduled STREB performances took place due to rain, and all of the live music was canceled. Instead, STREB presented a rescheduled performance Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

The first-ever Fringe Street Beat - an all-styles and breakdancing competition - was moved indoors to the Spiegeltent, with a packed house and massive lines out the door. Montreal's "Twisted Militia" won the $1,500 prize and bragging rights.

"This was an incredibly exciting event! We definitely want to bring it back next year," adds Fee.

Another free, line-out-the-door event was Fringe's fourth annual (and most popular yet) Gospel Sunday at Kilbourn Hall on Sunday, September 19, hosted by Reverend Rickey Harvey of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, and featuring AKOMA, Divine Nature, and the Zion Hill Mass Choir.

Remote Rochester, the immersive theatre piece created just for the 2015 Fringe by Berlin's ground-breaking Rimini Protokoll, sold out its entire run of 16 performances for this encore year.

In the magical Cristal Palace Spiegeltent, the all-new Cirque du Fringe: MIRACLE CURE was a roaring success for all ten days of Fringe. World-famous drag queen Pandora Boxx (Rochester native Michael Steck) sold out her two performances of The Worst Show Ever, and homegrown national comedian Jamie Lissow was a near sell-out. Silent Disco sold out all four weekend nights, and the first-ever Disco Kids was also a total sell-out.

Although slightly damp, closing weekend on a closed-off Gibbs Street drew good crowds on Friday evening, September 23rd for free entertainment that included the world premiere of Method Machine's GRIMMS' MAD TALES, a street theatre piece involving more than 150 area participants. Saturday's cool but clear weather brought out a big turnout for a full day of free entertainment featuring Street Chalk Art, live music by seven bands including Castle Creek, Burn it Up, and KNOWER, and a reprise of GRIMMS' MAD TALES.

While the Fringe curates its headliners as well as all free outdoor entertainment, the vast majority of the 2016 shows were submitted by artists to Fringe venues in March and April of this year, then programmed by those venues: Bernunzio Uptown Music, Blackfriars Theatre, Central Library, Eastman School of Music (Kilbourn Hall and Sproull Atrium), Gallery r, Garth Fagan Dance Studio, George Eastman Museum's Dryden Theatre, Java's Café, The Little (Café, Café Lobby, and Theatre 1), Lyric Theatre (Main Stage and Prince Street Chamber), MuCCC, RAPA @ SOTA (Allen Main Stage Theatre, Black Box Theatre, Dance & Movement Center, Ensemble Theatre, and the DS Comedy Club), Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo), RMSC's Strasenburgh Planetarium, The Strong, TheatreROCS Stage, and Writers & Books.

Many of the more than 115 ticketed performances that sold out were venue-curated, including After Hours - A Cappella Hour, Ladies of the Canyon, The Crooked North, and You'll Thank Me Later at Bernunzio Uptown Music; Stages of the Game Teen Improv Troupe, Marx in Soho, WILD BEAST DANCE | Tammy Carrasco, and The Hatchet Man at MuCCC; and Left for Dead Improv, The Eulogy, The Oboe Show and The 24-Hour Plays at Writers & Books. The venue with by far the most Fringe performances on five stages - RAPA @ SOTA - also had the most sell-outs, including You Only Shoot the Ones You Love, Aging Ain't a Laughing Matter...or is it?, Flatfoots, Floozies & Murder!, Make Us Laugh Comedy Show, and Stand-up Through the Ages.

More than a thousand participating artists also felt the power of Fringe to draw audiences to such a smorgasbord of offerings.

"It is certainly the highlight of our year, and each year our audiences grow," says Ted Baumhauer of Flower City Vaudeville, a perennial Fringe favorite. "It has given our group a credibility we wouldn't have otherwise."

"As a performer and writer it is invigorating to see the people of Rochester supporting the arts and taking the time to get out and experience them," says Abby DeVuyst who has also been involved with Fringe every year since its debut in a variety of productions that include four Dashboard Dramas (in cars), four Bushwhacked plays (in a pup tent), and Hot Tub the Musical (in a...you guessed it). "We are so lucky to have this colorful event in our city."

"Never in my wildest dreams would I think that Catholic guilt could SELL OUT all three Reverend Mother (Aging Aint' a Laughing Matter...or is it?) performances," exclaimed "RevMo" Phyllis Contestable, a first-time Fringe performer this year. "People are, indeed, looking for extra points to guarantee entrance into heaven. I was afraid to tell them my shows don't qualify for their Sunday obligation!"

The Democrat and Chronicle's Jeff Spevak - also a performer in this and last year's Fringe - may have said it best when he called it "the thinking person's entertainment."

"...Here's the thing to consider as you sample the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival: Entertainment is not simply distraction. It is education," he wrote. "I learned that at Rochester Fringe...: That's what you do."

In addition to its artistic and financial successes, the Fringe provides a significant boost to downtown business including hotels, restaurants, shops, bars, and parking garages. An Americans for the Arts study found that festival-goers spend about $30 per person in addition to ticket costs. The Fringe also creates more than 150 direct temporary jobs (artists, producers, performers, vendors, security, festival staffing) in addition to indirect jobs, further working to boost the local economy. Local businesses report that the Fringe has a hugely positive impact. Java's Café owner Mike Calabrese has rated the 2016 Fringe "his best year yet."

"We are extremely grateful to all of our partners - staff, venues, artists, sponsors, volunteers, and most of all, our audiences - for supporting this growing celebration of creativity every year," says Justin L. Vigdor, who chairs the non-profit Rochester Fringe Festival Board of Directors. "We enthusiastically look forward to our sixth Fringe - the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival - on Thursday, September 14 through Saturday, September 23, 2017."

*Attendance figures are based on modern crowd estimation techniques using a standardized formula (based on the work of Drs. Herbert Jacobs, Ray Watson and Paul Yip: area divided by crowd density) as well as by venue counts and ticket sales, and are deemed accurate within 10%, plus or minus.

More about Fringe: update: Since its debut in 2012, the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival has become one of the most successful fringe festivals in the U.S., attracting more than 67,000 attendees in 2016. This 10-day, multi-arts festival now boasts over 500 performances and events - more than a third of which are free - in 25+ venues in downtown Rochester, NY. Celebrating and inspiring creativity, the not-for-profit Fringe (curated by both the festival and its venues) includes everything from theatre, music, comedy and dance, to children's entertainment, spoken word, visual arts and much more.

Rochester Fringe Festival is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that exists as a means to connect venues, performers, artists, educational institutions and the audience. It was pioneered by several of Rochester's esteemed cultural institutions, including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman Museum and Garth Fagan Dance, as well as up-and-coming groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine. The Board of Directors includes representatives from the University of Rochester; Rochester Institute of Technology; Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC; Boylan Code LLP; Eastman School of Music; Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co. LLP; Method Machine; PUSH Physical Theatre; and Writers & Books. The Rochester Fringe Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. This festival is also supported by a grant awarded to the Rochester Fringe Festival by New York State's Empire State Development and I LOVE NY / NYS Division of Tourism under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.

2016 Fringe Sponsors included: First Niagara; I Love NY; New York State Council on the Arts; University of Rochester; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Elaine P. & Richard U. Wilson Foundation; RIT; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; National Endowment for the Arts; Gouvernet Arts Fund at the Rochester Area Community Foundation; Waldron Rise Foundation, City of Rochester; Monroe County; Bond, Schoeneck & King LLP; Boylan Code LLP; Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co. LLP; Davenport-Hatch Foundation; Wegmans; Nocon & Associates; Ronald Fielding; SUNY Geneseo; Konar Enterprises; Hilton Garden Inn; The Pike Company; Mary S. Mulligan Trust; the Max & Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Foundation; CITY Newspaper; Democrat & Chronicle Media Group; Buckingham Properties; East Avenue Inn & Suites; Broccolo Tree & Lawncare; McCarthy Tents & Events; Scott Grove; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; J.M. McDonald Foundation; The Rubens Family Foundation; The Wilson Foundation; the College at Brockport; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; Visit Rochester; Genesee Beer; Heineken; Magic Hat, House of Guitars; City Blue; Kozel Family Foundation; WXXI; Yelp!; The Penthouse at One East Ave; Gallina Development; Hamilton AV; KidsOutandAbout.com; GH Cretors Popped Corn; Mary Cariola Center; Midtown Athletic; the YMCA; Canandaigua National Bank & Trust; Burt Gordon; the Pallet Express and Northeastern Pool & Spa.

About KeyCorp: KeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies with assets of approximately $101 billion as of June 30, 2016. The acquisition of First Niagara Financial Group, which became effective on August 1, 2016, is expected to add assets of approximately $40 billion, based on June 30, 2016, balances. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management and investment services to individuals and small and mid-sized businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association and First Niagara Bank, National Association, through a network of more than 1,200 branches and more than 1,500 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit www.key.com. KeyBank and First Niagara Bank, National Association are Member FDIC.

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