Omnicentre

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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Ben Macpherson Bonfire Man - 8pm Omni 4 Show number 196 Venue Capacity - 60, Stage Dimensions - 6m square roughly Run - 17 shows (not Tuesdays) Total Run capacity 1020 - Total Audience 113 - 11% capacity. Daily Average audience - 6.6. I knew 4/5ths of the audience Tech provided - 2 Speakers, 1 amp, 1 microphone (some of this was removed by my last show) 2 LED stage lights on constant. Omni 4 was a horrible stage to perform on. Many shows abandoned this venue entirely. The sound bleed between stages was extreme, competing directly with each other. My show is halfway between a play and a sketch show & relies on a certain level of sound that I tried to keep to a reasonable level. However the echoing meant I had to keep turning up so my audience could actually hear the show. The stage was 4 plywood walls that went 2/3rds of the way up to the ceiling. A full height wall or a cloth roof would have helped with the sound bleed. Not only was the venue unpleasant but its location worked against it. Pedestrians were often en route elsewhere and didn't want to stop. They were usually headed to old town for a booked show and didn't want to take a punt on something so far from their events. The part closure of North Bridge undoubtedly impacted this as did low numbers generally. I flyered on The Royal mile, at the new town end of North Bridge, near the shopping centre and near the voodoo rooms, as well as at the Omni centre. I saw no impact from this. Exit flyering at Omni lead to a very few people sticking around but most left ASAP. I relied on guest spots for further promo and saw slightly better results from this, but not much. Signage for the venue was poor and I had to run out to find lost people several times. Venue staff were friendly. There was good green room provision. The final show clashed with a hip hop concert the venue had organised to recoup losses. Some tech was missing by this point maybe used for concert. I'd not accept a show here again.

Ben Tredinnick -The Morning After Omni Stage 5 (8:20-9:00, 15-21 August) Show 481. From a technical perspective, this venue was fine, as I only needed a microphone and a amp/speaker. However, I do think it would of been better for the stage light be a turned down at times, as it was very bright, too bright at times. The noise bleed was a massive problem at times. Stage 4 and 5 were in their own room away from the other stages (a problem in itself), meaning I only had to compete against one other show. But the noise from that show did heavily come through into my show, and vice versa. At times, the audience's attention was lost by the noise. Luckily, I managed to play this off at times and make humorous comments about it. However, as my show was improvised, this was easy to do. I do fear that if someone was following a script, this may of put them off their performance. Stage 4 and 5 were in their own room. This meant that many people who arrived at the venue could not see where they had to be, meaning that I had to find them and lead to them to the venue, far from the bar and main "hub". The location of the venue itself also caused problems. I flyered on the Royal Mile and outside my venue a hour before the show. The majority of people I flyered outside the venue were either going to other shows, or to the Military Tattoo. I did manage to get a few people in from flyering outside the venue, mostly due to my costume (A dressing gown , and flip flops) which lead to some amuzement from people outside. The majority of my audience came from exit flyering outside the other shows, especially stage 2, where another improv show had just finished. As for audience numbers, my first night was good, (all my friends turned up), and the weekend numbers were good (12-16).

(Continued) I had to cancel one of my shows as no one turned up. I was heavily exhausted on this day, so while I was dissapointed I could not perform, I saw it as a sign for some sort. The majority of people I flyered said that my show was sometimes on too late for them, and that the location of the venue was too far away for them to get to. If the venue was on/near the Royal Mile, I do not think this would have been that big of an issue. The venue staff was very friendly, and very supportive. The green room was good, but it did lose its curtain near of the end of my run, and as I got changed into my costume there, I did feel as bit exposed. Overall, for my first attempt at a solo fringe show, it was decent. The venue was not the best, and if I had the opportunity to perform at a venue closer to the Royal Mile, I would take it.

Ok, so massive issues with noise in stage 2 ( being the worst) noise from both sides. At first I thought this is never in a million years gonna work. But since the first night I had 12 people and made 67 they didnt walk out and I had great feedback I decided come rain or shine I was gonna try make it work whatever. Ive had a long gap and moved country to make this work. For reasons that benefit my family too. The bar staff and Colin who was kind enough to back this project couldnt do enough to help. Everything put together too last minute to rectify problems. ( including lack of funding, which doesnt mean that a heap of funding wasnt ploughed in) But the love determination and grit was there. Was a situation that could easily cause everyone to fall out. Most acts were tolerant and personally I just added the friction to my set. Which was all over the place as Id not previewed live, only online between trusted critics) I was disappointed at the lack of understanding from some acts towards venue. But also made some wonderful contacts and Id like to say now friends. Either way, If I can perform here, I can perform anywhere. I had the chance to see what worked, what didnt and other shows to learn from and ideas to up my game. Made friends with Scottish comedy acts which I intend to network with and gig, work material and fine tune a show for next year. I am grateful to get a venue either way. I could not afford to do it without the PBH free fringe and value the emotional support and acceptability to go with it. Even if I had the money I would not go to another company on principle of how they are run. Porter loos are always depressing but many people dont mind that. The other bars didnt mind us using theirs. I would ideally like to be more central next year. A small basic room that holds 60 would suit. A mic, speaker and light being enough. A huge glamorous venue not really needed.

Ideally with a single yellow so I can park between 8:30- 10:30 because my material is 18+ and I have to do school runs in the day. But whatever, thanks to everyone that made it happen either way. Liane

Omni stage two. 6-28th August

I didn't arrive until week 3 but I feel for the people who were there from day 1. I could feel the atmosphere of despair the moment I walked in. There were many problems, some of which could have been addressed. 1) The centre was isolated from the rest of the fringe. The only way you could address this would be for the acts to get together from the start and , by stapling their flyers together, produce a mini brochure and hit the royal mile as a team to persuade groups of people to spend all or part of the day at the omnicentre. I am not saying this as a criticism - I didn't think of it till I got home. I just think it might be considered in future years. 2) The venue was almost invisible from the street. The only sign on the street said " 2 bars, live music, street food" No mention of the other shows. On the barriers - which were at a 90 degree angle from the street and virtually invisible- one of the six banners did say "5 stages" but this is very very vague. A better option - which may have been impossible/mpractical/illegal would be to have an arch or something with the legend "This way to the omnicentre" "Entertainment all day" or anything to make it obvious what was actually happening 3) The interior was not welcoming at all. Okay, at the fringe you accept(indeed expect) a degree of makeshift/temporary fixtures, but people who did come in found bare concrete floors the ceiling hacked away to reveal the girders holding the upstairs floor. It just didn't feel welcoming and I didn't feel comfortable at all while I was hanging around. 4) The poor construction of the performance areas has been covered in previous posts. to be continued.............

I say all of the above with the benefit of hindsight and I hope it will be taken in the spirit it was intended. I appreciate that a lot of time and effort, not to mention money, was put into trying to make this a workable venue, but I am afraid it fell well short of what we would have liked or indeed expected. I save up all year for my week in the spotlight. I put a great deal of time and effort in and quite frankly I feel almost cheated. I will be making the voluntary contribution to the PBH group, but when my head has cleared I will be seriously considering my options for next year.

Going to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their frankness and level of detail in feedback about this venue, which was a new one for us.

Alexander Richmond: One Man 12 Angry Men - 10:40pm Omni 1 Show number 164. Was doing a full run of the Fringe for my first time, after having done long and short runs at Festivals in Australia. Had to cancel 4 out of 23 shows due to no audience turning up. Other than that, had an average audience of approximately 4-8 most nights, with a few making it into the 20s. To echo points already made above: location of venue was far from optimal and the general construction of the space left a lot to be desired. The spaces would get incredibly unclean (not necessarily from rubbish) but just from the fact that the ground was a dusty unused site. If I needed to place a prop or costume piece on the ground (which I had to do a lot because there was no other option, it would be covered in chalky dust immediately. Noise bleed was slightly less of a problem for me due to my late time slot, however if people had been milling about in the bar area as planned, it would have been near impossible to perform most nights. The bar staff were incredible and so supportive. As were many of the other acts. Truly the community had a great indomitable spirit but it was still hard I'm sure for most of us to work so hard for little reward. Additionally, a representative for PBH at the venue was an incredibly negative presence during the first few weeks. I understand this has been dealt with, but I think it is still worth mentioning. Finally, my last week was made exponentially more difficult by the performance in the slot before me - who were a wonderful team of lovely people but who's placement in the venue almost completely obscured my show and provided me with very little time to get set-up and then let my audience into my show. In particular on the final night, they ran over into when my slot was meant to start and then still took time to remove all their items from my space, replace all my tech and replace chairs. Half of my shows in the last week were cut in half due to this.

All of this is to say: I completely align with PBHs values and ethics and truly believe that the free fringe is an organisation worth fighting for. However, if I am to expect to get a venue offer a month out from the fringe itself in such a mismanaged and poorly thought out venue so far from the hubs of the fringe, I would have to reconsider my involvement.

The Bizarre Tales of Professor Novak The spaces were a good size and shape. But I must echo what has already been said about isolation, noise bleed lack of signs ect.

Matthew Dunlop, show: 5 FINGER$ OMNi Centre Stage 4 @1.45pm, show #634. I ran from Aug 10th-28th for a total of 18 shows I averaged about 6-7 people per show during the week and 25+ during the weekends. I really loved the stage and space. Sound was echoey if another show on the adjacent stage was playing music or the mic was too hot - but stage 5 also said the same for me and I was not using the mic/speakers at all. Eventually we figured it out pretty smoothly after a show or two and the majority of the run was great. I thought the crew/bar staff was super helpful in directing people to the stage area, and the other acts were incredibly considerate as well. I think because there were not street signs it made it essential go off word of mouth and talking to people. I didn't flyer at all, but one thing I found helpful was just passing out WBB everywhere I went whenever I was walking around the festival. This seemed to be the best way just to get people interested in the Free Fringe. Can I just add to that the APP was incredible and something to be celebrated as a huge success. So whoever did that -- THANK U! I think on the whole - acts all over the festival were struggling with audiences and I hope that 2023 will benefit with another year of major covid issues behind us.

[Hi all Sorry this is so late, it was re-reading the ethos and conditions that jogged my memory. Was written when all this was fresh last Sept, but forgotten about when I couldnt do discord] Hi! I was the VC for Omni 2, and did Existentially for a full run there. 1800 every day. We all had a tricky time, and it was hard to keep spirits up at points this fringe. Noise was a big issue, no matter what we did. No amount of consideration could counteract it. Thanks to everyone who put up curtains in 2, although sadly I dont think it made a difference All the performers working together to try and make the space as good as it could possibly be was wonderful, Im only sorry it didnt have more of an affect. All of this is common knowledge though, so no use labouring it now. Instead Id like to thank the staff who, having an equally crap month, never failed to make me smile. Their perseverance and dedication was unwavering and I was so glad to have their support every day. Same for my fellow performers, you guys were great! Ive loved getting to know each and every one of you. Thanks for brightening my day (Leanne especially, whos a total dynamo). This was a tough place to flyer. I know that some people had more success than we did, but 6pm was a tough time to get people here. Lots of people heading home from work, or heading out to things theyve already booked. People coming specifically for me kept the show going, and flying in the old town in the morning was helpful towards the end. We had to cancel two or three Tuesdays because of no audience. Generally the audience who made it here were understanding of the noise and receptive, and numbers were between 10 and 30 most days (Thursday to Sunday was always good). Having 5 stages in one place did mean we were competing directly for a small amount of walk up, which wasnt great. Thanks everyone, please remember to submit reports if youve not done already [this last bit did not age well, god I'm such an ass].