Darwin Fringe Workshops
Was delighted to run a series of workshops for the Darwin Fringe Festival - to help prepare, motivate and connect NT artists.
We covered key areas for self producing artists such as understanding your audience, how to communicate your show, social media marketing, taking care of yourself at a festival and idea generation for shows.
There were heaps of solid conversations in the space but here are a few of my take home messages for anyone who couldn’t get there:
Knowing who your audience is and how they decide to attend a show is crucial to your marketing and how you promote your art. Spend time thinking about those audience demographics. I give myself a full day to brainstorm about them. Who are they, what motivates them, why do they attend shows, how do they find out about things. The more time you spend here the faster you’ll be when it comes to developing marketing content and messages.
Be authentic. There is so much fake, curated content out there and the strength of artists is the vulnerability and reality we hold. Be yourself, market yourself with honesty and give real behind the scenes glimpses into your work and why you do what you do - it’ll help build trust and ensure you’re audience wants to invest in you.
Mix up your marketing content. You’ve got to have a mix of fun posts, pieces of your personality, connections to the community and promotion - it can’t be all ‘hey come to my show’ you’ve got to entertain and connect on social media - so for every post that’s a promotion of your art match it with something that’s fun and you.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. Fringe festivals are brilliant in that they provide an invaluable space for artists to share their craft in raw ways. Things don’t have to be flawless, you can learn and develop and grow through the process. Even your marketing and how you talk about your art will grow through the process. Let go of perfection and be open to learning through your fringe journey.
Finally, be kind to yourself. Festivals and shows can be stressful and take their toll on you. Especially if you’ve created a work that involves your heart and vulnerability. So remember to be kind to yourself, take time to relax, don’t be too hard if ticket sales don’t meet expectations and make sure you reach out to other artists and check how they are going.
Good luck Fringe humans!
