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**
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Show: Joseph Emslie & Friends Venue: Legends (Downstairs) Dates: 13th - 28th August Time: 18:35 - 19:30 I had a shorter run at Legends and it was a fantastic venue, that doesn't mean there weren't a few compromises, but in all, it was great. The Staff: They were great and wanted to do the set up and 'tear down' at the end of each evening which meant we could spend more time on flyering etc. We purchased them a big gift at the end as a thanks, which shows how happy we were with them! The Venue: I was in the downstairs room which holds roughly 30 people (at a real push) and the room came with: * 1 X Microphone and Stand * 2 X Speakers * 1 X PA System (We had to provide our own Aux) * I was able to plug my guitar in to the PA, and all worked as expected. A Few Things To Note: * The stage is pretty much non-existent. You are out of the curtain and on to a tiny little bit of stage. If you are a performer who moves around, this isn't the place for you. * The space has a 'backstage' area behind the cloth which is really useful. * The venue is on Cowgate and gets a lot of passing traffic, I found flyering outside the venue to be the best option. * The venue is separated from the 'main' bar area by a curtain which does mean that there is noise bleed. The staff were very good at turning down the music during performances which was appreciated. * I found the time slot interesting. Weekends were always full but Monday/Tuesday and Wednesday's I found that people were often getting dinner which meant it was harder to get people in. I've donated to PBH and want to say thanks for a great Edinburgh!
Venue: Legends (upstairs) Time: 8.35pm Dates: full run It's a big old stage, big enough for a small band to perform on, so plenty of room for a stand-up show. Professional sound rig and lighting. Nothing to worry about there. Capacity of about 80, I think. It's worth blocking off the seats at the very end of the room at the start to make people sit down the front. No storage room available in the room itself, it turns into a club once the fringe shows stop, so you can't leave anything hanging about. The venue very helpfully let us keep our flyers and posters behind the bar so it was easy to top-up when needed. Right on Cowgate, so easy enough to flyer. Quite a few people roaming about down there who are actively looking for free fringe shows. Saturdays/Sundays, they can be a bit boozy as the evening goes on, but those folk are easy enough to spot and not flyer if you don't want that sort of crowd. Very rough estimate, I'd say 30% of audience came from flyering, 20% from seeing me do guest spots, 30% from the blue book, 20% from word-of-mouth/social media. The show went well, smallest crowd was 9, biggest was about 60. Being a large room, it felt great on a busy night, but a bit empty if there were low numbers. Quite a high stage, which can make you feel a little distant from the audience, but altogether it's a great room. Venue staff were helpful and friendly.
Show: Geriatric Millennial Venue: Legends (Downstairs) Dates: 6th - 28th August Time: 2:50pm I did a full run at Legends Downstairs and had a fantastic time. Between the acts at Legends Downstairs and Upstairs being great, and the incredibly helpful staff I couldn't have asked for a better venue and experience. I count myself very lucky to have spent the month at Legends. The Staff: They did the set up and 'tear down' at the end of each evening which meant we could spend more time on show prep/flyering. I think in general the acts in the venue went out of their way to help out where we could. One thing to note - it's always helpful to clear glasses from the venue before the next act is on so the staff don't have to do it. And if you can afford to, nice to get them a gift at the end to say thanks! The Venue: I was in the downstairs room which holds roughly 30 people and the room came with: * 1 X Microphone and Stand * 2 X Speakers * 1 X PA System (We had to provide our own Aux) * The stage is small, but there is a backstage area. You are out of the curtain and on to a tiny little bit of stage. If you are a performer who moves around, this isn't the place for you. * The venue is on Cowgate and gets a lot of footfall. I got lots of last minute walk ins by spending the last 20 mins before my show right in front of the venue. I flyered on Cowgate mostly (and got lots of action by always having a big stack of the WBB). * The venue is separated from the 'main' bar area by a curtain which does mean that there is noise bleed. The staff were very good at turning down the music during performances. * 2:50 was a great time slot. * iZettle signal seems to work better than SumUp for wifi/card readers. Stand at the main entrance to the venue to take card donations cause inside the venue the signal isn't great. Again...I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Thank you PBH and Legends and all the acts for making this year exceptional! Donation made!
Show: Joe Bates Speaks Truth To Power Tools Venue: Legends (Downstairs) Dates: 6th - 28th August Time: 1.35pm I absolutely loved my time at Legends, the staff were the nicest people you could hope for and went above and beyond for everything. It also was a great venue and vibe for comedy shows. My experience pretty much mirrors what others have already said so I'll make this fairly short. I was downstairs which was pretty much the perfect size for my debut show and the location was very good in terms of opportunities to bring people in. Filling the room on weekends is very straightforward as there's a lot of people around. On weekdays more flyering was needed to get people in particularly towards the end of the festival. 1.35pm is a decent time although footfall in that area only really starts at around 12/12.30. Flyering before then near the venue was slightly harder work and there are a lot of venues in a small space competing for attention. For anyone doing this time slot I would recommend flyering a bit away from the venue (maybe Grassmarket/Bristo square) to begin with and then moving closer to the venue as more people get in. The one small drawback of being downstairs is the sound bleed if the bar is full. This was not generally a problem at 1.35pm even at the weekends but only occasionally was an issue when people would come in/out of shows upstairs and linger in the bar. This was only an issue once or twice for me but it's worth mentioning to acts on upstairs or maybe the staff at the bar to let the audience know there's another show going on - it's easy to miss. That was a really minor thing for me and overall it was a brilliant experience which I'd recommend: I'm definitely going to go for the same venue again next year
SHow: Apocalypse Kapow 641. I was just one day here upstair,s .the tech guy Jack was absolutely LOVELY and uber helpful. I needed a bluetooth connection for sound and they didn't have but he plugged mine in. Lights are REALLY bright on stage so the rest of the space is black, less easy to interact, possibly that was all changeable. There's a space off to the side to stash stuff / get ready, a reasonable size.
Show: ROB DUNCAN: Baby trains Venue: Legends (Upstairs) Dates: 5th - 23rd August Time: 2.20pm I loved performing at Legends, the bar staff were friendly and made it easy to store flyers for easy access. Flyering outside on cowgate before my show was always worthwhile. I found the weekend were busy and during the week quieter the first tuesday was 9 people but it grew from there. The upstairs place is amazing - almost no sound bleed only a little bit from the hand dryer in the near by bathroom. The stage is a decent size and the lighting rig was a real surprise. From last year it is a great place to play enough space to put on basic theatre with 2 performers. The venue main techie Deano is my hero he was so helpful and i cant thank him enough. Jack who was also helping on tech was great to. They made it a pleasure to perform here. I would definitely come back. The only drawback for me was that it is an 18+ venue so if you have a show in the afternoon you miss out on family audiences.
Show: Harun Mushod: Why I Dont Speak To People About Terrorism Venue: Legends (Downstairs) Dates: 5th - 27 August Time: 2.50pm This is my fifth time at this venue (by choice), four of them with full run solo shows, second year with the same show. Ive been venue captain three times in 2017, 2022 and this year. Having done the 5.20pm slot three times (2015, 2017 & 2022), the 6.35pm slot once (2019) and the 2.50pm slot once, I conclude that earlier slots are better, certainly for my type of sharp and witty* political comedy. Sound-bleed issues tend to be less problematic earlier in the day and the audiences less drunk (a bit of an issue with later time slots, particularly on Saturdays). The venue officially holds 25 but actually can hold 33 fairly comfortably. The chairs - 3 rows of 4 and a back row of 5, there are around 6 tall chairs at the back and the booths hold another 10, even without the backward facing booth seats. The area divides into a backstage and audience area through the use of a PBH Free a fringe backdrop (the venue keep their for re-use each year. No stage and the performance area is really only usable for one or two people, unless you take out a row of chair. Equipment is an ageing but functional PA with several mic input channels and an aux for, say, iPhone inputs, decent speakers, one mic and one stand. The venue may be able to provide another mic and stand but dont rely on that (it varies from year to year). No stage lights. I personally have a set of stage lights, stands and a crossbar that I bought over the years to use here, but we havent used them in the last two years.
(Cont) Im very comfortable performing here. On Cowgate, in the daytime, it has a great footfall. This year I averaged 21 audience per show, up slightly from 20 last year, even though I flyered far less (made the mistake of committing myself to guesting on another show just before mine at another venue). My buckets are up by 35% per head. I gather thats happened elsewhere so it may be the change in demographic. I feel audiences are older this year. But it may also be because my bucket speech is better. I anchor at 10 donations rather than 5, and I make much of PBH Free Fringes political mission to stop venues ripping off performers. The venue staff are great. Each morning they set up the Downstairs venue and break it down each evening. Tanya, the bars manager, and Deano the tech, have been superb again, and I gather the latter is particularly valued upstairs as he provides a free tech service on behalf of the venue. The bar staff are great too, and the bar prices are very reasonable (particularly compared to the rip-off Underbelly bar across the road). The bar also provides hassle free storage of flyers, posters and brochures. I hope to be back next year, but will probably try to get a slot in the upstairs venue, but would be happy to continue to be the venue captain for Downstairs, or even both. *according to a review