More date thinking

Okay, these are the dates of the New Zealand and Australian Fringe and Comedy festivals in early ‘09. If you know of any other dates that I should be aware of, throw me a line. I’m keen to add them and think of them.

The 2009 New Zealand Fringe is from the 6th of February until the 1st of March.

The 2009 Adelaide Fringe is from the 27th of February – until the 21st of March

The 2009 Dunedin Fringe is from the 26th of March– until the 5th of April

The 2009 Melbourne Comedy Festival is from the 1st to the 21st of April.

That overlapping is a really good thing. There is generally a tight window of time for performers to be able to keep shows together if it isn’t a long running thing like the Fungus Bros. or really easy to port around, like say, a Steve Wrigley style stand-up/theatre show.

Hopefully the 2009 New Zealand Comedy festival should be the month of May, at least that was what it was last year and the year before. It’d be cool if it started as early as possible, because that way a bunch of super talented folks who were at the Melbourne fest will jump across to New Zealand and do their shows. At least that is the hope; the New Zealand Comedy Festival is a smaller fest, piggy backing at least a little on the Melbourne Festival. Having a week between festivals equates to asking the international acts to hang around for a period of time where they are not earning but still having to do that expensive living thing. This is something that might not be palatable for someone who is essentially a super charged road comic (More expensive tickets, bigger venues, longer show, larger travel costs), especially one whose show may have happened early on in the Melbourne Festival. So, here’s to hoping for common sense when it comes to the Comedy Fest’s dates.