Edinburgh Clown Festival- Kickstarter!

The people at CloWnStePPinG have been producing a Clown Cabaret Scratch night in Edinburgh since 2014.  It’s been pretty successful, and they are now looking to step it up a notch, and are looking to produce the first ever Edinburgh  Clown Festival from May 3- May 5, 2018. Officially known as the Edinburgh Contemporary Clown Theatre Festival (ECCTF?), the shows will all take place at the Assembly Roxy, a downtown theatre space which has three venues in it.  (It’s unclear if all three venues will be dedicated to the clown festival.)

 

 EDINBURGH CLOWN FESTIVAL- PROPOSED ARTISTS

The proposed program includes Gardi Hutter (Switzerland), Ricardo Puccetti – Lume Theatre (Brazil) and Johnny Melville (Barcelona/Scotland), as well as Saras Feijoo (Venezuela/Spain/Scotland).  Saras is also the director of the Edinburgh Clown Festival.  I’ve seen both Gardi and Ricardo perform, haven’t seen Johnny, or Saras but their photos and bios sound intriguing– sounds like some great people!

In addition, there will be at least one Clown Cabaret Scratch night, and both Gardi and Ricardo will teach master classes. There will also be some colloquy/discussion sessions, as well as a networking session to build the community.

They’ve currently got a kickstarter going, and they are trying to raise the funds to put on this whole shebang by March 28.  They are trying to raise over $14,000! Considering that the festival starts on May 3, they are not leaving much room for failure.

If they don’t raise all of the money, they don’t get any of the money.

Here’s the budget they’ve set out:

Production Manager, producer and technical staff              £6300
Food for our volunteers                                                        £  560
Graphic Design, Posters, Flyers, Programs, PR                  £ 2000
Props and Materials                                                             £   400
Artists accommodation, travel and food                              £   900
Kickstarter 5%                                                                      £  508

Total                                                                                    £ 10668

Note that this does not include artist fees, nor does it include box office income.  (And theatre rent, which sounds like it’s being donated)

This seems like a great festival, but it’s going to need a lot of love to succeed.  There don’t seem to be any corporate sponsors other than the venue, they are waiting until the last minute to decide if it goes on (typically, you should try to have at least half your funding already in place before you announce the festival), and that’s a lot of money to try and raise in less than a month.

I’m going to pledge a little something, and I hope you do too.  And that way, next year, they can start planning the festival and securing their funding a little bit more in advance!  Because it is my considered opinion that the world needs more clown festivals.

To give money, check out their KICKSTARTER SITE: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2062687093/edinburgh-contemporary-clown-festival