Freaked Out
It’s festival time in downtown Dursleyville. It is one of the two times of year when all the weirdos come out of their closets and broom cupboards
But this year has been even weirder than ever. Luckily we have been blessed with reasonably mild weather for February after the week of hell that started with the new moon in January
It is strange to be attending events that you know will form part of very special memories for many years in the future and to know it at the time.
This so called fringe festival is what the official arts festival used to be before the yuppies took over and ruined it for the folks that don’t have gold and iron ore in their pockets
They have an interesting innovation called “Rushtix” where their cute pink caravans sell tickets for upcoming shows at reduced prices. Most half price and some even less.
The main festival used to have limited cheap tickets for four or five shows for that day and this special feature was reason enough to take two weeks holidays to pig out on plays and other assorted dramas
But then the goblins turned this into a labyrinthine ritual involving possessing a copy of the local daily newspaper, ringing the very secret number at exactly 10.13 am and giving the special code word for the show in question. Credit card only of course with assorted booking and transaction fees
This was their letter of the law response to the numerous complaints that they had gotten rid of the last minute cheap tickets and made the festival too unaffordable
So aside from perusing the program and booking early for stuff that looked the most likely to sell out, decided to take a chance on everything else.
Got to see a different show every day this week including this evening and with the exception of the decadent “Gold Digger - the shags to riches story of Australia’s most famous iron ‘ore”, most of them cost between 10 and 20 silver sickles.
Even the venues are gorgeous. The old treasury building is likes something out of a Kafka novel. Went to a show last night simply to get our nose inside the Postal Hall which was the original post office from the colonial days and as such remains the official marker point for distances to everywhere else. They used to call that street corner ‘ground zero’ but that expression has taken on a rather more unfortunate connotation in the last decade
This particular show was in the old post office hall with its most gorgeous arches and ornaments and a very mysterious walk way and corridor near the top leading to all sorts of mysterious doors. The side doors led off to strange cubicles and dusty staircases. It was like some enormous labyrinth and the perfect place for a murder mystery or ghost tours. Pity there were so many staff both before and after the shows making sure the visitors did not get too adventurous in their wanderings off the beaten path
The show turned out to be very good too. Got to love a guy who says
“I am from Belfast. It used to be big in the 80s you know”
“We get to play in crappy venues like this one. This is a condemned building. It could collapse any minute and we’d all get killed”
It was a show about the lives and loves of two circus performers who constantly bicker with each other between episodes of juggling, acrobatics and amorous adventures with members of the audience to the background tune of “Je t’aime”
But been so so busy being a culture vulture in mundane muggle reality that the online life has been sadly sadly neglected. Aside from a quick 20 minute peek on Saturday morning been absent from Cyberia since last Friday. Didn’t even have a proper ‘Dark mark’ party on Tuesday 7th. And the antics of the goblins are getting so outrageous that it is becoming almost impossible to keep up squiggling about them.
But there will be another anniversary next February and the internet will be there next month. The festival will not. The Old Treasury Buildings will once again be returned to the greedy clutches of the goblins who will convert them all into a posh hotel for snots where weirdos, freaks and fringe dwellers will most definitely not be welcome
Some of the people’s posts where the serpent wanted to leave calling cards or say hello are now two weeks old. Will be catching up slowly.
Might even manage to add a review or two of the some 10 shows seen so far
But this year has been even weirder than ever. Luckily we have been blessed with reasonably mild weather for February after the week of hell that started with the new moon in January
It is strange to be attending events that you know will form part of very special memories for many years in the future and to know it at the time.
This so called fringe festival is what the official arts festival used to be before the yuppies took over and ruined it for the folks that don’t have gold and iron ore in their pockets
They have an interesting innovation called “Rushtix” where their cute pink caravans sell tickets for upcoming shows at reduced prices. Most half price and some even less.
The main festival used to have limited cheap tickets for four or five shows for that day and this special feature was reason enough to take two weeks holidays to pig out on plays and other assorted dramas
But then the goblins turned this into a labyrinthine ritual involving possessing a copy of the local daily newspaper, ringing the very secret number at exactly 10.13 am and giving the special code word for the show in question. Credit card only of course with assorted booking and transaction fees
This was their letter of the law response to the numerous complaints that they had gotten rid of the last minute cheap tickets and made the festival too unaffordable
So aside from perusing the program and booking early for stuff that looked the most likely to sell out, decided to take a chance on everything else.
Got to see a different show every day this week including this evening and with the exception of the decadent “Gold Digger - the shags to riches story of Australia’s most famous iron ‘ore”, most of them cost between 10 and 20 silver sickles.
Even the venues are gorgeous. The old treasury building is likes something out of a Kafka novel. Went to a show last night simply to get our nose inside the Postal Hall which was the original post office from the colonial days and as such remains the official marker point for distances to everywhere else. They used to call that street corner ‘ground zero’ but that expression has taken on a rather more unfortunate connotation in the last decade
This particular show was in the old post office hall with its most gorgeous arches and ornaments and a very mysterious walk way and corridor near the top leading to all sorts of mysterious doors. The side doors led off to strange cubicles and dusty staircases. It was like some enormous labyrinth and the perfect place for a murder mystery or ghost tours. Pity there were so many staff both before and after the shows making sure the visitors did not get too adventurous in their wanderings off the beaten path
The show turned out to be very good too. Got to love a guy who says
“I am from Belfast. It used to be big in the 80s you know”
“We get to play in crappy venues like this one. This is a condemned building. It could collapse any minute and we’d all get killed”
It was a show about the lives and loves of two circus performers who constantly bicker with each other between episodes of juggling, acrobatics and amorous adventures with members of the audience to the background tune of “Je t’aime”
But been so so busy being a culture vulture in mundane muggle reality that the online life has been sadly sadly neglected. Aside from a quick 20 minute peek on Saturday morning been absent from Cyberia since last Friday. Didn’t even have a proper ‘Dark mark’ party on Tuesday 7th. And the antics of the goblins are getting so outrageous that it is becoming almost impossible to keep up squiggling about them.
But there will be another anniversary next February and the internet will be there next month. The festival will not. The Old Treasury Buildings will once again be returned to the greedy clutches of the goblins who will convert them all into a posh hotel for snots where weirdos, freaks and fringe dwellers will most definitely not be welcome
Some of the people’s posts where the serpent wanted to leave calling cards or say hello are now two weeks old. Will be catching up slowly.
Might even manage to add a review or two of the some 10 shows seen so far