Edmonton Fringe Festival gone tiki...

Up here in Edmonton, our Fringe Festival (theatre and performing arts) adopts a different theme every year and this year that theme is "The Big Kahuna":

http://www.fringetheatreadventures.ca/index.php/festival
Store-front windows have taken up the theme (photos to follow), festival volunteers are wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis, and our only vendors of Tiki products (mostly Tiki Farm) are touting their wares. There's even merchandise:


I, of course, bought this mug (made by Modern China, USA). I expect to find it popping up in thrift stores for the next decade. There's also key chains, T-shirts, and hula girl spongy stress reliever things. I'm going back with my camera this week to get as many photos as I can. It's no Hukilau or Tiki Oasis, but for this oft-frozen burg "The Big Kahuna" is a breath of fresh Pacific air. More to come.

I used to be an enthusiastic fringe participant (stage manager, volunteer, etc.) back in the early days (27 years ago - ouch!), but of late the fringe is more of an annoyance - cars blocking my driveway, late night revelers peeing on my lawn, that type of thing. I only heard about this year's theme a couple of weeks ago. I'll be checking it out but I have low expectations. Maybe the mugs will be discounted by the end of the week - that's usually what happens with unsold fringe souvenirs.

I haven't been to the Fringe in nearly 20 years. It's been 24 years since I performed there. What do you mean you never heard of "Shit & Death is Everywhere -- the Bill & Mark Street Art Fest" ??? Brian Paisley thought we were dispensing free drugs because the audience was participating with sheer abandon. Nope! It was just mass hysteria!

But, yeah, it's changed... For the worse; for the better. Lots of people still like it.

I checked out the Fringe site this afternoon. There was very little "theme-ing" that I could find.

Volcano on top of the Artsbarn. This could be cool if they staged eruptions or tossed virgins into it.

Volunteers.

Apart from the souvenir tiki mug, the only tiki in any form I spotted was of the dollar store variety. Did not check out the storefronts on Whyte Ave.

joe90 - I vaguely remember that title.

Well, I may have exaggerated a little in my enthusiasm... but I'm going down tomorrow afternoon to take some photos, so I'll head up and down Whyte. I know a few windows that are done up, but I'm hoping to find more.

I work in the store DELUXE ( next to HUB cigar )and are window usually has examples of the stock we recieve from TIKI FARM!,if this helps anybody out there we just got in more stock!STOP BY IF YA CAN !

Don't look like the peeing in my driveway crowd....you never know us wacky and crazy canucks, we can just whip out in a moments notice!

Igniters - I'll stop by when I get a chance. Is there a TC discount? :D

TikiLaLe - Are you a snowbird?

I knew if I was patient I'd eventually find some of these guys in the thrift store.

Only took 4 years.

Yeah, I'm surprised I've never see any in stores since!