And suddenly it’s day two. A year of planning of preparation and already the adverts in the papers are saying “finishes tomorrow night!”. After a long day’s journey to the festival club, seven shows opened or previewed and another four are going up tonight. The momentum is now unstoppable; you just have to feel the rhythm and roll with it. My motto is: keep moving forward without looking back and never ever look down!

A verifiable army of technicians, producers, artists and organisers are swarming about the city making things happen on a grand scale. The biggest show of all, of course, is On the Case from Leg’s on the Wall which will open in George’s Dock tonight. Eighteen thousand people will see this major spectacle over the next three days. Precise planning and a hugely skilled team led by Adrian Acosta, have pulled off the biggest technical challenge the festival has ever faced – and made it look easy!

With the big issues planned to precision, it’s about sweating the small things now. Crisis management in four acts. With 24 hours to go to the start of the Lost Theatres Project we discover we need permission from Dublin Bus as well as Dublin City Council to park the truck containing the generator – we have a contact in the Dublin Bus marketing department, who has a mobile number for Mark Kelly from Area Operations Control (great man!) and we’re sorted. What’s next? The set for Traces is delayed by American customs and may not arrive in time for their Late Late appearance tonight – Trinity College Sports centre kindly stepped in and supplied equipment, and it’s on to the next one.

And then a quick change into the suit and tie and a dash to the Gaiety to welcome the great and good to the official opening. Hibiki is stunningly beautiful and equally demanding. Reactions range from the ecstatic to total disdain. And this is what it’s all about. People talking about art, debating the merits of choices made in rehearsals rooms on the other side of the globe. The audience telling us what they really think – our marketing campaign coming to lurid life before our eyes.

Tonight I’m doing Laurie Anderson, Leg’s on the Wall and the Lost Theatres Project (The old
Smock Alley Theatre on Wood Quay will be illuminated with images from performances past between 8 & 11) and who knows what crisis will present themselves before then.

People love working on festivals! They are a drug and we’re their junkies. It’s one mad adrenalin rush for the next two and a half weeks – and we’re the highest people in town. We’re the theatrical equivalent of extreme sports fanatics. We’re religious devotees at the second coming. We’ve been up all night, but who feels tired? If you see us, buy us a drink.

Loughlin Deegan
Artistic Director

We're nearly there!

With us now doing a countdown of the number of hours left until we open, things couldn't be busier at the Festival offices!

The international theatre companies have started arriving in - SITI are already in town getting ready to perform two shows, bobrauschenbergamerica and Radio Macbeth; Tof Theatre have arrived to perform the family show Bistouri (and we've even added an additional public performance on the 28th at 7pm to cater for all the family bookings!); and Legs on the Wall are literally building the wall as I type for their stunning aerial show, On the Case, at George's Dock! It couldn't be more manic!

Meanwhile, all the last minute plans are being executed! We're frantically preparing show programmes for 16 of the productions so that audiences have all the background information on the shows and casts they are about to see. That's no small task! Our eyes are in the back of our heads with all that proofing! If a comma ends up in the wrong place after they've gone to print, I never want to know! We're also preparing all the dressing of the venues with posters and banners so that everyone knows that the Festival has truly hit town!

And if that isn't all enough we're about to launch the final wave of our marketing campaign. I've become a danger to myself as I now cross roads without looking at oncoming traffic as I'm obsessed with scanning billboards, bus-backs and even external pub ashtrays for pieces of our campaign! And despite practically living in the office, I believe the campaign is being spotted everywhere as I get regular texts and emails from people in the outside world letting me know where they've spotted it!!

So between shows opening and closing, sponsor nights and press nights, and the odd last-minute panic thrown in for good measure, the next few weeks promise to be the usual non-stop, crazy rollercoaster that every Festival guarantees! But would we have it any other way? Not a chance!

Ross Keane
Director of Marketing & Development

Corporate Friends Director’s Nights Selling Out!

Just over two weeks to go to the first of the Festival’s popular and glamorous Corporate Friends Director’s Nights. Spread across three special evenings our corporate friends enjoy an exclusive Pre-Show Drinks Reception, VIP Tickets to a headline Show and a Post-Show Dinner. Tables are selling extremely well for these Gala nights, with only a limited number of tables now available for two of the Corporate Friends Nights while the third Gala evening is completely sold out

Our first night is at Traces on Tuesday 2nd October (Olympia Theatre with dinner afterwards at FIRE in the Mansion House). Some of you will know that TRACES was the hot ticket at the Edinburgh Festival with standing ovations and people queuing to buy tickets for this contemporary circus show from Montreal. If you can’t wait ‘til then just log onto our webiste to check out supercool video clips of Traces.

Radio Macbeth the 2nd night taking place on Thursday 4th October. (Project Arts Centre with dinner afterwards at the Tearooms in The Clarance). As this show has sold out at the Box Office this could be your only chance to see Radio Macbeth! Presented by one of New York’s finest companies, Radio Macbeth a haunting and haunted production telling the tale of a group of radio actors performing Macbeth only to be circled by the ghosts of characters from previous productions. Pretty spooky! Did you read the interview with the show’s director Anne Bogart in last Saturday’s Irish Times? This was part of a 4 page feature on the Festival’s 50th anniversary.

That’s all for now. Just to say to those of you already on board as a Corporate Friend we look forward to welcoming you and your party along to our Corporate Friends Directors’ Nights! If you'd still like to join us, just call the Festival on 01 6778439.

Yvonne Thunder
Event Coordinator

The race to the starting line begins!

So it’s just over 2 weeks to go and race is on. Once you think everything is in place, more keeps on happening . The Marketing Department is awash with activity. Our DL brochures have just come in so will be in spots all over the city and nationwide so keep an eye out. The What Will You Think? campaign is in full swing with our 48 sheet billboards, bus stops, DART and Bus’s covered in Festival slogans. It’s a shame that we never getting out of the office to see it all but I did nearly get run over after nearly following one of our Bus’s on Sunday – so be warned!

Radio adverts started this week and will run through Newstalk, Today FM and RTÉ. The wonderful Janet Moran and Bosco Hogan both recorded for us last week and within seconds, they had it, such true professionals! Final touches are being done to the 2 TV ads which Janet and the fantastic Malcolm Adams star, will be aired from next week, which we are all really excited about.

So life in the Marketing Office is all about deadlines, ad deadlines, print deadlines and all personal deadlines – well they can wait till November! Show programmes are all in motion and asides from specially commissioned articles, we are lucky enough this year to have high profile people such as ex-Artistic Director Tony O’Dalaigh and Honorary Patron Hugh Leonard writing special pieces on the Festival’s 50 year History. They’ll all be on sale for most shows over the Festival - a collector’s item to be sure.

The Festival club this year promises to be one that will go down in Festival history as the liveliest place in town where we have lots of parties planned. There is a real buzz this year as we will be using the beautiful Odessa Club which is central, late night and also serves food for the starving artists of the Festival. The club is members only so only companies, media and Friends of the Festival can get it. As Dee our wonderful Box Office manager has given all the great benefits of becoming a Friend below, there’s no need for me to go on.

Finally, to the shows. Fishamble have already opened The Pride of Parnell Street in London to amazing reviews . Quotes like “simply magnificent” and “quiveringly beautiful” from the Sunday Independent ensure an amazing start, look up the web page on our site for some audio clips. What is exciting the Festival office is definitely Traces, the hit of the Edinburgh Festival. See what the fuss is for yourself, with the video clip on the website. The History Boys and Long Days Journey Into Night are in the lead in Box Office takings and both productions are set to be the heavyweights of the Festival also. Catch a rare Question and Answer session that the legendary Alan Bennett gave in London recently on The History Boys page.

Anyway, that's it for now. Hope to see you at the Festival!

Shauna Lyons
Marketing Assistant

Obsessions!

Write a blog, indeed! Bear with me, I’m new to this, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it. The story of my year in many ways.

But what a year! After all the travelling, all the shows, the difficult choices, agreeing dates, venues, times and ticket prices, working with the Marketing Department on laying out the programme and planning the marketing campaign, and the endless proofing and proofing – it then goes public!

At the launch in Merrion Square I was so concerned with getting through the speeches that it totally took me by surprise when somebody came up to me and told they that they thought the programme was very strong. We’d kept it under lock and key for so long that I wondered how they knew! And since then, of course, all I care about is what the public think of the programme.

Having re-read all the previous blogs you could get the impression that we’re obsessed with ticket sales – but believe me, we are! Flicking through the Friends Priority Booking Forms was the first sign of neurosis – why is she booking for that and not that? Why has he chosen that Peter Brook production over that one? The neurosis is now full blown. I’ve learnt to restrict myself to checking the box office stats 20 times a day, but it’s not easy. As my colleagues have said below, box office sales are breaking all records, which is making us all very happy but continues to fuel my obsession. Some productions are already sold out, and all are selling well, but can I encourage you not to miss Hibiki and Ivanov in the opening weekend. They might well come and go before you get festival fit, and trust me, I think you might miss the best two productions this year if you don’t get organised in time.

And in the meantime I’m off to London this morning for the opening of The Pride of Parnell Street at the Tricycle, and to see the new Complicité show at the Barbican tomorrow night.

Plans for 2008 are already well advanced with many international productions pencilled in. But October 2008 seems like a lifetime away. The circus comes to town in three weeks time and we look forward to the coming madness with a great sense of anticipation, excitement and dread. But at least my first blog is done. And now it’s a mad rush to the airport – again! But just one last check on those box office stats before I go.

Loughlin Deegan
Artistic Director