Does Victoria's "Pick of the Fringe" Award Mean Anything?

By Septimus Brown

Right off the bat, I want to make something clear: I'm not questioning the merit of any of the artists who won awards at this year's Fringe Festival in Victoria. But I do think a conversation is needed around how the voting works.

To vote for your favourite Fringe show, all you need is a postal code and email address. There is nothing to tie each vote to actual audience members. That means the voting is at least in part a social media popularity contest.

Case in point: this year's winner of Pick of the Fringe Victoria was Tango, It Takes Two by PointeTango. They had a great run of sold out shows at Kirk Hall, so it's entirely possible that the majority of their votes were cast by enthusiastic audience members. However, they were also posting regularly to social media, encouraging fans to vote:

A post like this could serve as a good reminder to people who caught their show, but it could also help rope in votes from friends and family, potentially from across the country.

Without any connection to attendance or ticket sales, it seems there is no way for Intrepid to assess the authenticity of the votes received.

However, it wasn't PointeTango's win that prompted this blog post. I was more surprised to see other shows walk away with awards that I kept hearing mixed reviews about. I admit, this is entirely anecdotal, but I attended 14 shows this year, and I made a point of asking people next to me in line or while waiting for shows to begin what their favourite performance was. Almost every single person was in agreement: New Wave Your Behaviour by Tor Lukasik-Foss was superbly written and performed. With a name topping so many people's lists, I would have expected him to at least snag an award like Favourite Solo Show or Favourite Dramedy. Alex Dallas' Horseface was also frequently mentioned, but didn't even hit runner-up status.

Anecdote affords no science. But still, it would be nice to have some assurance that audience opinion is accurately reflected in the Victoria Fringe awards.

Some ideas for future festivals:

• Back to the Beans: one year Intrepid had audience members add a bean to a pot on their way out of each show that they wanted to vote for. There must have been issues with this system since it wasn't repeated, but perhaps a variation of this approach could work.

• QR Code Voting: A new twist on bean voting? Place QR codes at exit points of venues that audience members can scan to vote immediately after the show. Unlike the beans, this could allow people to vote for a show in multiple categories.

• Voting Code Per Button: Everyone needs a button to attend Fringe shows, so why not have each button come with a voting code? Intrepid could use a randomizer site like Voucherify to create a whack of codes, and print these on small pieces of paper to be handed out with each button. It would increase some of the festival's prep work, but it could go a long way to ensuring the authenticity of the awards.

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Septimus Brown is an award-winning writer, editor, and self-professed narrative structure nerd with a BA in anthropology and an MFA in creative writing. He is the co-author of Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling. In his fiction, Septimus enjoys crafting genderpunk worlds and coin-flipping gender to challenge both his own cultural precepts and the expectations of his readers. When he's not dissecting the intricacies of storytelling at Darling Axe Editing, he’s diving headfirst into the worlds of speculative fiction, small-stage theatre, and experimental music. A lover of the odd and unconventional, Septimus writes from Victoria, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.