Aug
16
2006
The Un Fringe
I normally look forward to the Fringe Festival. In the past, I've set aside the entire opening weekend (which is this coming weekend - August 19-20) for taking in as many plays as I could. Not this year. I'm attending one show only - Finer Noble Gases from Basic Acid Theatre. A couple colleagues of mine are acting in the production and I'm pleased to support their efforts. And depending on the interest, I might spend an afternoon down at the Fringe site with Kerry and the kid.
Other than that, I'll be doing my best to avoid the Fringe site. Maybe it's just me, and perhaps things have been this way for some time, but I think that the whole Fringe circus, for the average resident in Old Strathcona, has become damn near unbearable. The unwashed hordes busting the sidewalks for a week and a half. The drunken jackassery that exists year round but gets exacerbated during the festival. The increase in property damage and general shit headed mayhem. The treating of Old Scona as a drunken playground and a public toilet rather than a neighbourhood where young families live. These are complaints that are easily levied at Whyte Avenue in general, but they get brought into sharp focus during the Fringe. I can't brook that bullshit this year. Or next year. Or after that.
In fact, I can't brook it in general any more. My days of living in Old Strathcona are numbered. I've always had a love/hate relationship with the place (really, are there any other kinds of relationships?), but these days I'm leaning more towards hate. Which is not to say that I'll feel this way tomorrow. The place has its ups like anywhere else. I'm just saying that things are changing and the next twelve months will likely be my last in this part of town. It's time to move on.
