Beyond the Fringe

Fringe festivals are supposed to be about left-of-field events, right? Well, Vallejo, Artistic Director of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival actually believes it would be “really something” if, say, former boyband member Bryan McFadden came along and jammed with one of the more avante-garde music acts that will be presented in the Spiegeltent this year.

“I’d be into that,” he says. “Because the good thing about a fringe festival is that you can go for something like that and it would be great fun. Also, for the chin-stroking ‘arties’ who turn up at the various festivals around town and who are more there for the pose and are, thankfully, few in number at this Fringe festival, it would make them gulp, which would be good thing. Then everyone could have a good time and dance their arses off. You’ve given me some programme ideas!”
More seriously, Vallejo is not short of ideas for either the Spiegeltent or the festival in general. He certainly likes the freedom of choice involved in staging music acts in the Spiegeltent itself, which also functions as ClubSpiegal.
“There are forty plus events, ranging from opera to Nina Hynes to a Mongolian throat singing group, Crash Ensemble, a diverse range of acts but not lowest common denominator stuff for a second,” he says. “We really try and keep the energy and the sense of innovation and people doing new work that also defines the Festival overall. In fact the guiding, coherent principle behind the Festival is that we seek out theatre companies and acts that can bring new ideas and innovation to the Irish performance scene.”
This aesthetic is not, however, simply something set up in opposition to the Dublin Theatre Festival which runs at the same time.
“Initially, that was the case when the Dublin Fringe Festival was set up but at this point it could just as easily be called the Dublin Contemporary Arts Festival because we’re not really here as a counterpoint to the Dublin Theatre Festival. Now it’s very much a beast of its own shape and nature. And it’s got its own ideas informing it, it’s own momentum. It doesn’t necessarily need to be set up in opposition to anything.”
So is there not an argument it could be run at another time of the year?
“There is but I think the good thing about putting it on at the same time as the Theatre Festival, and now, as the Comedy Festival, is that we set up Dublin as a real destination at this time of year, when there is not a lot else going on in Europe,” says Vallejo. “So the critical mass is a good thing. And I think people, in general, will be blown away by so many of the shows this year. Sticking with music, for a moment, there is the Romanian production Serial Paradise, by the DCM company, which has a nutty, contemporary dance but uses a whole lot of popular music and takes the piss out of contemporary music and contemporary politics. It’s very funny, very high-paced. I also think Daniel Figgis’s Tamper will be a cracking show, in Marlay Park. We’ll be using video projections on the front of this old ruined house in Marlay Park, for 700 people I think.”
That show will ‘play with the mythology of the forest, positing a fictional history for Tamplin’s House in Marlay Park.’ But it is only one of 150 different shows which will include 1500 participants and represent 15 countries over a three week period from September 20th– October 10th. The response thus far has been “really good” says Vallejo.
“The ticket sales are just starting to take off and it’s just about to get really, really hit,” he says. “And to me – as someone who’s never been accused of maturity! – this programme feels really mature, as well as being great fun. But it does feel like a programme that has real maturity in it in terms of the work. The shows we have coming in really stand up to any kind of scrutiny and to anything that’s on in the Dublin Theatre Festival and in any festival anywhere.”