The first annual Fringey Awards was a huge success! We would like to thank all who participated in the event. Overall, we received 37 video trailers of Fringe performances and thousands of hits to the site daily. The Fringey Awards made it possible for fans of the Minnesota Fringe Festival to engage with the event in a fun, interactive way. It allowed fans to sneak preview of some of the performances and vote on their favorite trailers, while performers received free advertising for their shows.

This past Sunday, just after 11:00 pm, the winner of the Fringey Awards was announced by Jonathan Hamilton of VISI at the Guthrie. The two runners-up, both receiving one year worth of free Web hosting from VISI, were The Traveling Musicians and The Harty Boys in: The Case of the Limping Platypus. The grand prize winner also received one year worth of free Web hosting as well as $500 from VISI. Jonathan announced Sarah, Your Ovaries Are Drying Up: The Musical as the winner before handing them a giant check, which they held above their heads in pride as the crowd of 500+ people began to chant “Big check, big check!” We could not have asked for a more excited, dynamic, and engaged group of people. Our hope is that the Fringey Awards will spiral into something even bigger next year.

If you are interested in learning more about the Fringey Awards, you can follow us on Twitter, check our our Facebook page, or visit the official Fringey Awards Web site.

Click on the thumbnails below to view the full-sized images of the closing night ceremony.

Jonathan, about to announce the winner

The excitement of winning!

“Big check, big check!”

The excited winners

Runner-Up Trophy

When I first found out VISI received permission from the Fringe Festival to construct an online video contest for participating Fringe Festival shows, I was giddy. The Minnesota Fringe Festival is 11 days of nonstop performing arts action. With multiple theatre locations and dozens of shows a day, choosing which Fringe Festival to see rivals an Olympic sport for some. For the casual festival-goer, the choices can be daunting. In 2008, the Fringe Festival issued 40,929 tickets to 154 shows.

VISI has launched the first annual Fringey Awards – and the exciting part of it is the mutual benefits it will give to Fringe Festival shows and festival-goers alike! Since the participating artists get a portion of box office sales for their show, it behooves them to promote their show as much as possible. By submitting their web trailers to the Fringey Awards, they increase their online advertising and a chance to win $500 to boot. The video submissions can be excerpts from actual Fringe Festival performances or simply teasers.

The benefit to the theatre-goers is being able to get a sneak preview of the shows before attending the festival. Any visitors to the Fringey Awards site will also be able to vote for their favorite trailers through July 28th.

Now that voting on the website is live and we’re spreading the word through Facebook and Twitter, I can say I’m still pretty giddy about this event. VISI is enabling the Minnesota Fringe Festival to further their mission: connecting adventurous artists to adventurous audiences. Go see a show!