Here is the place to write a Show Report for your venue, detailing as much information as you can that might help shows there in years to come. Include things such as dimensions of stage, passing traffic, good spots to flyer, useful promo, tech equipment, ambient noise; anything that will help give shows a good idea of the venue before they arrive. **Please include your show number so we can confirm your show report is in the right venue forum**
Pinned a message.
[Chamber Room] *Skeptics on the Fringe*, show 256: a great albeit short run this year, but one that went fantastically well. A well-kitted out room with basically everything youd want, seats around 50 comfortable, 60 at a push. One tech failure this year was the HDMI cable failing which took out a few shows and made me think that having at least a few spares on hand there for common failures was a good idea. Staff there are as caring and as wonderful as ever, tidying up flyers without being asked and suggesting good locations to put posters that people may not have realised. Niddry Street is a route from the Cowgate to the Mile so there are TONS of flyering opportunities at the top and bottom, or you can go mid-street and get folk hanging around the Banshee. (Possibly more to edit in as I remember)
Great venue, good for my spoken word of anthropomorphic stories. The darkness added to the atmosphere. The open door made it difficult with noise pollution, especially with groups of tiddly folk in the corridor talking loudly. Had to stop half way through many times to ask people to be quiet or move. Just a screen door with a large please be quiet sign would hopefully resolve that next year. Fab venue otherwise for my type of show. Thanks
banqueting hall?
may be a good idea if we specify which room in our reports
Agreed, @Mark Pentler!
Worth putting pictures in. Heres the chamber room during our event showing the available tech (mostly). The setup in there is very comprehensive
Show number 119 Hi there! Were the team behind The Ritual and we played in the Banqueting Hall. The room was perfect for our show. It had a capacity of 40 and the dimensions of the stage were small but it was an intimate space with great atmosphere. Wed recommend the space to stand ups and other comedy shows and ideally not a show which would suffer from outside noise. There is a characterful iron gate at the entrance to the space which can be 'closed' (great for our horror-comedy show vibe) but this doesnt keep out any noise pollution! We used this for our show (heading out into the corridor and telling people to be quiet to good comic effect as of course they never were) but if your show relied on creating a more delicate atmosphere, and would suffer from interruption, it probably wouldnt be a perfect room. Better go for the Chamber or Cinema room.
There is plenty of passing traffic. Banshee is honestly one of the best venues you could have, sandwiched between the Mile and the Cowgate as two of the main Fringe thoroughfares. As for good spots to flyer, the banshee itself is excellent as the clientele there are open minded, good fun and up for anything (within reason!). So we often filled our space almost exclusively with people whod been milling around the Banshee beforehand. Youre also close to Bannermans, the Mile, The Hive, Cowgate etc where there are plenty of passing people to entice to your show. The tech equipment was fairly limited but perfect for our uses, so a solid PA system with 2 mics connected (which we didnt need or use) and a basic lighting rig with a few different colour states and the capacity to blackout (all we needed was a red wash, a white wash and a blackout). We ran our tech using a laptop and Ableton Live Lite with a simple audio jack which was perfect.
The backstage area is always a bit chaotic, just a narrow corridor and a side room which quickly gets filled with all the other acts costumes, props, instruments etc. Wed advise you to be as economical as possible with what you bring and not to plan to leave anything too valuable in that room - not that we had anything stolen (we even had a friend leave his takings from the hat in there which were never touched) but more that if you were worried or stressed about your valuables, theres so much traffic going in and out of that room that youd exhaust yourself bringing your things every day and taking them away again if you werent happy to leave them overnight. Maybe the best thing of all at the Banshee are the staff. They are helpful, polite, hardworking, honest, well spirited, positive, just generally legends. They stepped in to help us with unruly audience, always offered us water and free drinks from the soda tap included as we were performing, even mixed us a blood every night using cranberry juice and grenadine for our vampire show. They are the BEST and we couldnt recommend the Banshee enough as far as Free Fringe venues go.
[Chamber Room] Maddie Campion: Mads Mads Mads 7:20pm - short run of 10 days Really well run venue! Cool, well ventilated, small stage. Something to flag for accessibility: room is wide and downstairs - it was hard to hear your own voice from the speakers but the audience had no difficulty. I flyered everyday for 1.5 hours, sometimes with an additional extra flyerer Smallest audience was around half a dozen Largest audience was full room Really decent considering how popular the time slot is! Only issue I had (aside from the one tech blip previously mentioned) was there wasn't always someone able to manage the audience for my show (this isn't the responsibility of the venue of course but a group effort ) when I was setting up and a couple of times I went to welcome the people who'd been waiting only to find they'd all disappeared. Not sure if they'd ended up deciding to watch the show that started at 7:10 whilst I was in the room but hope they hadn't been poached/encouraged to by that shows flyerer. I ended up hiring a flyerer for the 30 mins before my show to help with the queue
(Banqueting Hall) Tina Sederholm:This is Not Therapy, show 153. This is my seventh time at the Banshee and as usual the staff were amazing. So helpful and supportive and friendly. I love this venue from the bottom of my heart. Its a proper old fashioned Fringe venue - the sort of underground room where little gems of shows play out. Tech is basic but more than enough to run two mics and a sound cues through a laptop. Its a small performance space, but enough to have 3 spots (snare stage, stage left and right)If you want more space, I suggest clearing the front row of seats (but put them back for next performer). Close to the Mile, so easy to flyer there - I find pointing out to prospective punters that the venue is close by often tilts their decision in your favour. I find Cowgate too busy to flyer on; people just get annoyed because they have to step around you. As mentioned in other reports, there is no door to the Banqueting Hall, which can mean significant noise from outside. However as my show was at 12.50, this was only an issue once (and it was performers from another show making the noise!) So I would say if you have a more intimate show like mine, noise is not an issue if you have an early slot. All in all, count yourself lucky if you get a slot here.
Chamber Room. Excellent venue. Wonderful staff. Only criticism is that the WiFi was very unreliable. More often than not I couldn't connect downstairs and had to go up to the entrance and let the audience leave the way they came. Which wasn't ideal. Had the WiFi worked, I could have directed the audience to leave out the back and saved a lot of congestion! But it's basically the perfect fringe venue. Thank you very much for having me.
It took me a while to realise this was why folk were sending folk up that way and that they werent just doing it wrong
Wifi was fixed last half of the run luckily
It wasn't fixed for me. It was temperamental throughout the fringe. I'd say more often than not, I had to go upstairs. Most days my phone would connect to the wifi, then by the end of my show it would have disconnected! Very frustrating. Maybe you go lucky in the send half!
I would also like to add one more comment. That the Chamber Room had a tech box at the back of the room was a major selling point for me. However, when I arrived to do a tech run on the 5th August, I discovered all tech was set up to be run from the stage and nothing was possible from the back of the room. Luckily, some very quick and clever thinking and rigging from Ricky (Richie?), the Banshee Tech, meant stuff could be run from the back of the room - but it was in mono. Not a problem at all and the sound worked very well, but it might be useful to have the tech box set up at the back as standard for those that would like to use it. Also, lights are operated from the back of the room. So, as the room was set up you would operate sound from the stage and lights from the back of the room!
Oh my, okay. I do think its the one area they need to improve
If they can put something a bit more reliable in the office behind the chamber room it would help, Ill ask the staff for next time (and all year round for us!)
show number 130. Had a lovely run, staff were brilliant, tech worked most days but maybe 4 or 5 days had to go without the projector. I think next year its worth investing in a very long hdmi and a bunch of ties so that if something goes wrong we can just plug straight into the projector and keep the wire out of the way. My numbers at midday were good, filled most days. 10 minutes between shows was a tight turnaround but I think now I know that I'll just write a shorter show. All these things are very minor though all in all a lovely run and hope to do the same slot next year.
I cannot believe they didnt have a spare and Ill raise it with the staff
I keep meaning to, I know most of them well since were there all year round
I was in the Banqueting Hall. Very nice room, good microphone/soundsystem although it took me a while to work out the tech as I was solo. The guy doing the show before me showed me how to do stuff. I was around 1pm so no noise bleed. I had a flyerer who tried a bunch of different places (from outside the Banshee, top/bottom of Niddry to the Mile) but unfortunately my audiences were always pretty low. I never got more than 7. Doing my own flyering might have helped, certainly as I know that room has been busy for other people. Unfortunately I couldn't really flyer much for health reasons. The show before me overran quite frequently and if I'd been getting bigger audiences I might have raised it as an issue but it felt a bit churlish to say something when my audiences were so small anyway. And I think the show had originally started with two people but the helper left so it was one person which made it more awkward for them. Still though, if I were to advise on that, I think having props, a laptop and mingling with the audience are all excellent things, but maybe not if you have a quick get-out as I had to wait for the mingling to finish before I could set my stuff up, as the table, etc were still in use. I could not get Sum-Up signal, even outside in Niddry Street after my second show. First couple of days were fine then nada. People with iZettle seemed to fare better. Because of this several people paid with PayPal although even they had terrible trouble even getting that to work. I'm glad they were so patient in trying to connect! That's about it really! What have I learned? Do more flyering myself if I'm well enough.
You absolutely dont have to be pulling in big numbers to expect to start your show on time and get in on time, dont ever feel bad about complaining about it if it happens next year, although maybe hold off for a few days at the very start of the fringe - it can take time to get used to your show etc and a few days to find your feet
Finishing on time is like, one of the major rules, and constant overruns should definitely be addressed!
Over running is never acceptable.
It was more that it got worse towards the end of Fringe and I didn't realise it was going to be a daily issue. By the time I did, things were nearly finished anyway. But next year I'll be a little more confident about such things! Thank you both.
Defo, venue captain is first contact for that
Gareth and John are The Welsh Eccentrics show number 665 10.45am we did about 5 days. LOvely and helpful staff especially with tech. basic trech but more than good for what we were doing (gareth had sound ques and stuff) good size stage area and lighting. very central location which was a great help as i have osteoarthritis. There was some good opportunites nearby for flyering. all round a good venue with nice staff and would do a show there again given the opportunity
SHOWS: JAY HANDLEY - ASCENSION & JAY HANDLEYS FAT PENGUIN LATE SHOW CINEMA ROOM The Cinema room is a perfect little 40 seat theatre with everything you could possibly need. (Mics/ high end sound system and projector) The BAnshee staff are helpful and professional and work harder for the performers than alot of the staff in paid venues. Numbers were good for both shows due in large part to the great central location and the popularity of the bar itself. Takings were very solid too. The banshee is a fantastic venue and one of the shiniest jewels in the Free Fringe's crown!
I was Our Anxious Measurements, show number 98 at the Banqueting Hall. An absolutely stunning venue. The acts before and after me were incredibly friendly, generous with time and generally very helpful. The staff at the Banshee were lovely too, really accommodating, gave me some great tips on how to let a half pint of Guinness settle. Audiences ranged from as little as 2 to about 35. Had several days with 3, several days with about 13-14. Flyering happened outside of the venue, approaching onlookers and asking what they were up to for the evening and engaging from there. I shifted very few flyers, but the ones I did tended to draw people in. Wi-Fi signal was perfect for the whole run. Some noise bleed in rowdy weekends, I was at 19:00 so perfect time for people to get their drinks in. Not too much of an issue on weekdays. There was an incident with storage- the staff were really lovely and allowed me to store my wheel of fortune in the hallway of the staff room. I felt a bit self-conscious mid run, thinking it was cluttering up space and thought to store it with everyone else's bags, but the next day someone carelessly placed their luggage atop the wheel, damaging one of the pegs permanently. I since relocated it to its original spot, out of the way of things, and haven't received a single complaint (hope this was okay). Main learn was to not get disheartened when getting lacklustre reception from flyering a spoken word show. I have a niche audience but the audience is definitely there. Also not being afraid to engage people having a drink already. The WBB was an incredibly powerful asset to flyering too. The Banshee Labyrinth was an amazing venue, could not ask for anything better.
Show 153 Ali Brice: Im More Interested In What You Have To Say Chamber Room Great venue. Staff were as friendly, attentive and as excellent as ever. Tech was perfect. The shows either side of me were awesome. The PBH Wi-Fi meant there was no issue taking card payments. Everything was perfect.
Show 323 The Firemans Daughter Banqueting Hall This was my first fringe run and it was wonderful! It would not have been possible without PBH. Audiences were mixed (I had one no show, numbers as low as one and numbers as high as thirty) but this was a poetry show which is a hard sell. Takings were incredible - averaged at about 7 a person and I sold a lot of books. The wifi was great, especially with the PBH network. The staff were very wonderful (and even bought my book). It went smoothly the whole run, no tech issues other than one mic stand slowly giving up - there was another, though. Noise bleed could be bad if the wrong group set up in the corridor. It might be worth putting signs up to remind people to be mindful that there is a show on, seeing as we cant cover the gates for fire safety reasons. Some problems with the storage room being abused by other shows (re: food waste, drinks from the bar, flyers everywhere). Banana skins then started to appear in the actual room???? I also bought my room a bucket on day one, as venue captain, which went missing after a week. Gonna write banqueting room on it next time in big letters. No serious complaints though. On a positive note, I an transgender and I never once felt unsafe at Banshee. Everyone was very respectful and I 10000% believe that the staff would have come to my aid swiftly if anything went wrong with an audience member.
I was in Banshee Laberynth Chamber room at 2:20 PM. Great space. Zero noise bleed. Staff were always great as usual. The pbh WiFi was great this yest for sum up payments. Had one of my best years this year. Great numbers overall . My lowest numbers in that room was about 17 on a Tuesday so happy with that. Great working with Fiona who was on before me and Dave on after me.
Show 396 disoriented on the murder express Banshee Chamber room The Banshee remains a wonderful venue for the free fringe and the Chamber room in particular was the perfect space for our show, with significantly less noise leakage than the Banquating Hall, which we were in last year. Audience numbers were very high throughout, I dont think we dropped below half-capacity. The technical set-up was everything we needed it to be and much better than other venues of a similar size. Storage-wise, we only kept a keyboard there overnight, but we didnt have any problems with it getting damaged (Though we were only there for the final week). The staff were very helpful and were willing to lend us tape etc. when we needed it. I would also echo what Jonathan said about feeling really safe in the pub. Also, I didnt have a card reader this year, but I know that the new pub wifi and PBH wifi were SOOOO much better than last year. All in all, a great experience.
banshee
Baby Dinosaur Show Number 153 Banshee Labyrinth Chamber Room A fantastic venue. Fantastic staff. Well kitted out technically. Projector and screen already in situ (every day I felt lucky thinking about what Pleasance would have charged extra for this!). The screen is massive on a small stage. Worth thinking about if anyone has projection and a cast of more than one sight lines are tricky. But if you dont need the screen it can be hauled up to reveal a tad more space. Some concern about card readers from acts the previous year but delighted to report that the wifi was spot on even on busy weekends. I think the venue would be better off using the counter system for the majority of shows. I was regularly turning people away when I reached capacity so audiences started pushing in via the back stairs. On several occasions I ended up negotiating with extra people trying to squeeze in which delayed the show start ended up having Mark Dean Quinn acting as bouncer one night! And other friends/ performers helping other days. The counter system might have helped here. But still, what a fantastic problem to have! The venue is well located, much loved by fringe goers and packed with friendly people. An amazing venue that audiences sound out, which makes flyering much easier! Would love to come back.
Show 637 Marcus Megastar: Live & Controversial - Banshee Labyrinth Chamber Room
Sunday to Thursdays 01:30 am Full Run
I would like to say what an absolute pleasure it was this year being the Venue Captain for The Chamber Room and my amazing "Chamber Room Champs". I am so proud of how hard they all worked and how compliant they were when requested. Esje the manager, Richy the techie, the bar staff and the door men were so supportive and helpful and could not do enough for us.
The owner was so helpful and even fixed the WIFI so we had our own network to take card payments which had been a problem in previous years.
There wasn't any performers who were consistently late or needed to be spoken to.
My show was on at a very late time Sunday to Thursdays. I am proud of just how much my show pulled people into The Labyrinth on the strength of the circuit party dance music. Once the momentum had built we were nearly at full capacity.
It mean't so much when people who had walked in halfway through the show actually came back to watch the show again and what they had missed. It was also very heartfelt when people came back again because they wanted to experience it again and bring their friends.
The venue is in an absolutey fantastic area, well suited for the brand of my act and the audiences were amazing. I found I grew absolutely exponentially from this 3 week run in my prosthetic and live stage work and delivery of jokes and comedy and made new fans from around the world. I would love to come back and delight audiences again! Well done everybody! We did it!!!
Show 377 - Banqueting Hall OVERALL VENUE + Absolutely fantastic venue in terms of vibes, audience availability and location. Was perfect for our silly wee show about Serial Killers! + Staff were incredibly helpful and made us feel really safe. We had a couple of instances with some creepy men when flyering and the staff made sure we had a radio to call a steward should we need to. + Having separate wifi for the card machines was a massive help and the signal was consistent. STORAGE Storage space was tight but did the job and everyone seemed to be consistent with keeping to their claimed corners. As previously mentioned was a shame about the random banana skins being left as overall it was pretty decent considering the high volume of people using the space. FLYERING SPOTS We found having someone at the top of Niddry street and then another at the main venue entrance seemed to be successful as you managed to grab people headed in the direction of the venue. TECH Pretty basic set up in the room, had no major issues on the whole. One of the mic stands did start to give up the ghost as the run went on - built in 'flaccid' joke right there though so no major drama. Had to be super careful and static with mic placements so there wasn't feedback - this space is TIGHT. Tech desk is at the front of the room so good to have a tech who doesn't mind being on show!
BANQUETING HALL We had a super successful run with only 2 shows not being to capacity and had folks watching through the grates of the door at the back, we did however have to take out one of the back rows to use as a changing space. The room is suited to 1 - 3 person shows rather than a 5-person cabaret with costume changes! Significant noise bleed from the corridor, most shows we had to ask folks to be considerate. Disappointingly a couple of times we had other performers and their pals as repeat offenders. This room gets HOT, HOT, HOT. I think getting a couple of big fans to use in between shows just to circulate some air would be beneficial. We definitely had a couple of nights where the show before us had a full room and we could pretty much taste the audience in the air! OTHER We had an incident where I personally forgot to pick up a stack of WBB on my 5-min before the show run round of the venue, and a man, who I assume was with PBH as he had a badge on, was extremely rude and verbally aggressive to me. He berated me for forgetting the WBB, a genuine mistake, and preceded to tell me how grateful I should be to have this venue and that people would 'crawl over dead children' to have the same opportunity. At the time I apologised at a genuine mistake, told him that the way he was speaking to me was inappropriate and rather than discuss like adults he stormed off. I fully understand that I made a mistake and of the importance of the WBB however I felt this behaviour was frankly disgusting, over the top and just not in keeping with my experience with the Free Fringe as our venue captains .etc have been nothing but lovely and supportive. I fully cop that the mistake was on my end and I've sat on whether to report this or not as everyone has bad days .etc but I feel like if this was my organisation, I'd want to know how I was getting represented. We had such a blast this Fringe and at this venue, thank you al from the bottom of our spooky hearts!
~~I'd like to know who that person was who challenged you like that. If I saw someone without WBBs it wouldn't be fair to escalate immediately to 100%. We're human, we make mistakes~~ Actually, I've a good idea.
**Show number 575, Skeptics on the Fringe, Banshee Cinema Room** Back in our original home of the cinema room instead of the chamber room this year! Although we're only there because I was slow with Sci+Rat allocations... We had an excellent 3-show run every Tuesday night and the room was full for the lot. Plenty of our regulars showed up as well as newbies attracted by the speakers or just because they were interested. The support from the venue and staff was brilliant as it always is, and the team there has done a great deal to make the Fringe as simple as possible. The tech had a minor blip one night where we had quiet sound, but I'm pretty sure that was our fault. Queuing and people management seemed good on the nights we were there, and the layout of where folk stand worked well. The storage area was much cleaner this year but there was still some way to go on that front from other acts. For context the Banshee are our venue for the rest of the year too, so we're very familiar with how things work there and the staff, which helps a ton.
**Show 55, A Clown Tries to Write a Play**
Cinema Room
Brilliant space as always, staff are so welcoming and helpful and I just love being in this venue. Seem to always get an audience in, even on days when I wasn't able to flyer much, which I attribute to the great location and reputation of the Banshee.
Cinema Room is a great space, huge projection screen which I wasn't using this year but actually didn't detract from the performance having it there and I like that it's possible to display your handles etc at the end of the show even if you don't use the projection throughout.
Tech was smooth and Ritchie was always on hand to help if something wasn't working.
Was a pleasure having David on before me and Phil afterwards, who thankfully wasn't at all phased by my huge cleanup! Hugely appreciated Banshee lending me their hoover after each show and filling up my 'orange juice' preshow. Having a suitcase to store all my props in was super useful, as it made it a lot easier to keep the storage tidy so I'd definitely recommend that. Also people could stack things on top if necessary at no risk to my props.
All in all, another brilliant fringe at Banshee - thanks so much to everyone who makes it so enjoyable!
Moon Pact Trial (show 249) Banshee Labrinth Cinema room 21-27th 8:55pm The Venue Its my second year bringing a show here and its fantastic. Would love to be in here again. Perfect setting, perfect placement on Niddry Street. One of the best at the festival. Staff are helpful and interested and engaged with audiences and performers. Great atmosphere. If you are doing horror, I think this is best venue. Not only on PBH, but best at the festival. Audience Numbers good. Far greater than last year in the lunchtime slot. For horror I think its the perfect venue as the regulars seem to be fans of the genre or at least open to the concepts of the show. Monday Tuesday a good 30 odd dipped a bit on wed/ Thursday but then full Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Sometimes on the weekend tough to get them all in as they spread out on seats. I dont know if this is normal, but my audience tend to turn up about 2 seconds before the start time and then a lot of latecomers in the first 5 min cant get in. When people spread on the long benchs latecomer gather around the outside of the door and getting them in while shows going is harder. So, for future performances I would make seating them a bigger focus as they are entering. Sometimes people outside seem to get lost and confused as theres 3 venues in the same building. I dont know if there could be some signage that explicitly informs the public of the three venues inside? Because there is only one queue outside. Public sometimes ask are you waiting for X show and are told no and then they go to leave thinking the show they want is not on. Im not sure what the solution is there. I just chased after people. I only had one weekend but, on the Fri/Sat/Sun not everyone could fit in the room. My show was never on the placeholder system, but I think that would have helped to have every show on that system if possible.
Flyering Because the branding of the Banshee is Scotlands Most Haunted Pub flyering niddry street and the mile for horror seems quite effective. Scheduling 8:55pm is a great time for horror. Last years lunchtime shows dont have the same atmosphere and the numbers were far lower. I did also a week of midnight shows last year, and this is not ideal either as theres a story to get through. So I think any later than 10pm and its hard to get them to focus. I had a clash with The Master I think thats unfortunate as were both competing for the same niche crowd. It would be great to have a few horror shows in a row in the same room so we can flyer each other shows and keep a similar audience between shows. Performance Space The stage is well lit and the sound system is good. Theres enough space for some physical theatre on the floor. Everyone can see pretty well because of the raised cinema seating. I didnt use the screen for this show, but I would incorporate it on a future show as the screen quality is great and I saw it used in several other performances. Setting up is easy in there. Bucket Generally, good response. Lots of people coming from word of mouth and generous. The new wifi made it far easier to get card payments in the room rather than having to get money outside.
+ Banshee regulars a great audience for horror + Niddry Street great location next to other venues and the mile + New Wifi for card payments works great. Donations much better this year. + Audience comfort of the benches + Staff engaged and always helpful with questions + Floor is soft and good for very physical stuff + Fans not too loud on lower settings keep it from getting too warm + Door when closed blanks out any noise from bar + Haunted - Seating audience can be tricky as they spread out and then dont let it get full - The audience seem to wander away from the queue unlike with the chamber room. The cinema queue is inside near the bar whereas the other one is outside. I dont know if thats just for my show or normal.
Show 118 David McIver: Small Boy Trapped in a Wellness Retreat Cinema Room, 12.20pm, 5-27 August I had a very enjoyable run in this excellent venue. I was doing powerpoint-heavy stand up show at lunchtime and it worked well in this space. The staff were very helpful and on hand whenever I needed technical help. I used the projector and I didn't have any problems with it. The only slight difficulty was getting the right lighting for a projector-based show. Either I had to dim the lights quite a lot to see the projector, but then I would be in darkness, or I could turn the lights up so I was more visible, but then the projector screen was over exposed. Quite a minor issue and didn't have a big impact on the show. Audience numbers were great, and the room was full most days. Turned away a lot of people on weekends. I had 2 flyerers doing a little over an hour of flyering most days, I was in the main brochure and app, and I think there was some word of mouth, which helped too. Buckets were good, helped by banshee having a separate wifi for card reader payments. I received about 50/50 cash/card payments. The door on the room effectively blocked out any noise bleed (at least at lunchtime), but sometimes people would wander in when the show was full and it was a bit disruptive having to ask people to leave during the show. Anyway, clearly one of the best venues on the fringe, free or otherwise. The space is excellent and the staff put a great deal of work into making everything run in a smooth and professional manner.
(Chamber Room) The Lost Play of Barry Wayworm: 2035, Aug 5th-11th We had the most wonderful, beautiful, awesome time in Banshee. Chamber Room was perfect for us (a small-cast clown-play). AUDIENCE: Audience numbers were good, with full or nearly full rooms every night of the run except Mon/Tues. Weekends strongest numbers, but Saturday crowds were *interesting*. Bucket largely reflected this, with best numbers Thurs - Sun. Card machine bigly recommended, and it worked fine downstairs. FLYERING: We had a 5-strong street team for flyering owing to a big cast. Flyering immediately before the show worked well - Niddry St and Blair St are great and audience is happy to take a punt on things they are passing. Lots of love and support from venue staff and regulars coming to see the show too, and word of mouth was really important to our numbers. Didnt pay for a programme listing and that didnt seem to hurt our numbers, although made it hard to collect reviews. TECH: Tech was great - simple but customisable setup. Put everything back as you found it as some cables (past their best) don't work if knocked. Intended to use the projector, but the space behind it proved more valuable to us (stage is a little bit narrow when the screen is down if theres multiple people on stage). We were allowed to move the tech desk off stage for the same reason. STAFF: Staff were excellent, had a good relationship with Richie especially who went out of his way to make everything run smoothly - we couldnt have been more grateful for their help, especially with tokens and get-in. Lovely at every turn. TIMING: 2035 was perfect for us - was always fairly busy in Banshee and on the street outside. Get-in was a little tight, especially as we figured the room out in the first couple of days. Venue and acts either side of us were helpful and understanding. STORAGE: Storage space is limited so dont leave anything there you dont want to get broken. It gets very messy very quickly.
Show 413 Mark Dean: Quinn is this enough The Banshee Labyrinth is everything a free fringe venue should be Central location Well equipped Doesn't feel mainstram But why Banshee stands out is the staff. They are exceptional people. There are not many places I could do my very silly 1.50am cheese eating show and I was very lucky to be in Banshee
Show 341 - Our Anxious Measurements II The show returned for a three day filler run at the Banqueting Hall. Audience Had 10-25 in audience but as a returning act a lot of these were people that came to see the first show. With more packed audiences it does get a bit hot but there was a fan in the room which was of great help Flyering Like last year, flyering worked best when approaching people outside the venue who were looking at the show listing's or appeared indecisive. Public seemed moderately receptive to flyering attempts in the three days I stood outside. Tech Besides the mic no tech was needed for the show, but it ran as smoothly as last year. Lighting options available which might be worth considering in future runs. Bluetooth setup meant I could tech for other shows more discreetly when it came to sound control Staff Staff were lovely as always, really friendly and felt like I could approach anyone at anytime and get the support needed. Noise bleed Noise bleed minimal for a 16:30 slot but will be more of an issue if you're on later in the evening. Weekends have a reputation for generating a lot of noise and while this can be mitigated through closing the doors to pub space, you have to play with what you have. Having someone on hand to keep noise levels down effective to a point. Storage Storage is available which is a blessing, but heads up it will get very messy and you might lose tabs on where your things are. Still a very nice feature in the venue Overall an incredible venue, it was a pleasure to be able to perform here again
Show 180: Screech Night Spoken Word Showcase Full run, except Wednesdays Audience: Full gamut of audience sizes through the run, from nobody except the acts themselves (we still had fun) to full rooms. 10 was probably pretty average. interestingly, bucket take rarely correlated to audience numbers. Saturdays were the hardest sell as the venue was generally full of drunk tourists with little interest in seeing a show! Flyering: pushing the wee blue book helped, as did flyering in/outside the venue immediately before. Exit flyering other spoken word also useful. No overtly negative flyering interactions this year, which was nice! Staff, amazing. really helpful and friendly. I had to deal with 2 separate instances where someone needed got rid of: a guy who started groping someone in the bar after my show and a known sexual offender on the poetry scene. in both cases staff acted quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to everyone else's night. Noise Bleed: generally manageable with strategic shushing! it's always going to be an issue in the banquet hall in the evening, especially when they open the extra bar on the end. Only really a problem on Saturdays. Storage: great to have the use of the storage cupboard. would suggest everyone has a labeled box or bag or something, as it did get quite chaotic in there at times. Definitely my favourite venue on the PBH. The staff are , again, phenomenal.
Show 389: Viggo Venn Shows Freshly Cut Videoes in a tiny Cinema Venue: Banshee Labyrinth Room: Cinema Room, ca 42 capacity I was in the Cinema Room 2 years ago for a full run and absolutely loved it. Back this year for a week showing fresh cuts of my new Travel Documentary, thus actually using the Cinema Room as an actual cinema. And as you can imagine, as a cinema, the cinema room is absolutely perfect! This year I showed my travel documentary, then got audience feedback and questions during and after. Easy to operate lightboard and the HDMI from the stage. I spent every night editing the things discussed with the audience the day before and coming with fresh (and better/funnier/tighter) episodes the next day. Downloading huge files of several gigabytes every day with bad Edinburgh internet is not recommended, and I was late for my own performances several times while waiting for downloads. That being said, the shows was great and this was invaluable feedback and I delivered a much better show thanks to Banshee Labyrinth and PBH free Fringe. The venue and PBH free fringe are both dreams to work with. I ended up seeing and promoting other shows at Banshee after my show. TECH: Easy to operate sound, light and HDMI from side of the stage. AUDIENCE: Actually a lot of return audience from my run 2 years ago. STAFF: The staff at Banshee Labyrinth might be the best staff ever. Very helpful and Banshee Labyrinth is a special place everyone tends to have a great time in and come back to.
We echo what we said about our run back in 2022. The banshee is one of the best venues in the fringe, paid or otherwise. The staff are, Simply, legends. The other acts are a wonderful bunch and we always wish we could see more of their shows. The venue ran out of wee blues at one point but was quickly restocked. We have nothing much more to add other than that our shows went well, both the ritual and the master. We were in the chamber room this time. We had full rooms throughout and felt like the show on before us cleaned up promptly and effectively. We apologise (and did so directly) to the moon pact trial as we often took longer than expected to clear out our audience as even if we finished on time, the exiting / donation process took time (even with two card readers!). we did our best and tried to help with their set up as much as possible but really appreciated their being understanding. We will do better next year (if we are lucky enough to come back next year). Were grateful to be part of this venue and this particular group within the fringe. It feels like a surviving pocket of the actual fringe, where the spirit is still strong and where wed feel lucky and happy to get to come back to again.
Moon Pact Trial 9:50pm +++ Still the best place at the fringe!!! If you scroll up you can see thoughts from 2023 and its mostly unchanged. Favourite venue at the fringe was great to be back and see the show grow a bigger audience and be programmed with similar acts in the same space. This room is perfect for horror. +The bar being known as Scotlands most haunted pub +They fact they run a horror festival in October +Regulars are into goth/heavy metal and seem open to horror unlike some general audiences at the fringe who just want comedy. +aesthetically fitting in a basement with metal bars +Bucket solid + Easy to flyer ++ The room is equipped as well as anything on the free fringe and better than lots of paid venues as its a venue all year round. ++ Staff! This venue has supportive staff who care about the bar and the shows and put a lot of energy into making everything work including helping with sending audiences to the right rooms. They know about the shows and are informative. This year I had bigger numbers. This is helped by being programmed in a room with other horror acts. We had The Ritual on before us every day and the Cabaret of Terrors right afterwards. I know earlier on Daves Necromancer also draws in people open to horror.
-Im not sure everyone went to the tech meeting as things often changed. The venue staff organised a pre fringe tech day to sort out everyones needs and set some rules, but they were broken every day. Our tech had to spend a lot of time resetting everything before the show. (Mostly lighting desk having RGB values changed every day so pre saved states are now different) This adds a considerable time to pre-show set up. (See above mentioned by the ritual and later in this right up) Im not faulting the venue but if the PBH can push everyone to attend this set up day then we can all be more efficient in our tech set ups. Also the tech box always filling up with food and drinks etc. I know people eat during shows becuase they dont have any time but if we get a bin in there that would also encorage less mess. When we put our equipment in there there was often no room because of the food. -Saturdays are still a bit tricky in this late timeslot. People might be too drunk/high and find it difficult to follow a story. I had some wild interactions. It might be too late for the wanky meta theatre Im doing. On a few Saturday nights a few disruptive people tried to derail the show. The rest of the audience were supportive and tried to remove them, this led to stomping and chanting etc but thankfully Banshee Staff intervened to remove them.
Also, above The Ritual mentioned difficulty getting people out! We totally understand that and had some of our issues.Yeah, it takes a while to fill and exit if your full (a good problem to have) The show Wifi is really good for getting payments, but its still a slow process. We went up slightly late a few times but its impossible to speed up this changeover process. The two doors are right next two each other so you cant have one crowd in and out at the same time as there would be a crush. (Setup takedown and audience in and out for two full shows in 15 min is tricky) We had to apologise a to the show after us a few times The Cabaret of Terror. Even if the show finishes on time its a tight squeeze getting money off 50-80 people If you have a bigger cast perhaps bring two card readers this might speed up exits.
Monster Mystery Mansion (Pete Lex and Moon Pact Present) Show Report 4 Shows in Cinema Room/Chamber normally 3pm Horror/Comedy/InteractiveRPG Totally works in the banshee we just had 4 slots when people had breaks to test out this new concept. We had at least 30 each show. Most of them came from seeing the Moon Pact or Horror for Breakfast. of shows went great with really fun audience interaction. The 4th one was very hard as no one wanted to interact or play the game and thus it was tough. You cant really do anything about that when the write up describes it as a cross between DnD and Resident Evil. Again, Banshee is great for this with lots of horror fans and both Cinema room and Chamber. Good experiment and we would bring it back again love the space. +Projector was essential for this tech heavy show ++Staff as always super helpful +Great venue +Great aesthetic to rooms ++Good tech facilities -I think a few days we only had 10 min to set up and that tricky with a show like this, but I suppose unavoidable if were taking slots here and there.