Join us for the first #HFF13 Twitter chat on Monday, January 28th from 6:00 to 7:00pm PST. The first of our chats will focus on all things Registration (like creating a project, venue-related questions, registration fees, etc.) so get your questions or stories ready to share. All you have to do to join the discussion is use the hashtag #HFF13.

We’ll also be announcing a new community feature that will be launched on our website during this twitter chat – so follow along to find out what it is.

The twitter chat will be moderated by Rachel Stoll, our Social Media Manager, from the @HollywoodFringe account. Other staff members will also be available to answer questions, and we’ll close out the discussion with an “Ask the Festival Director” segment, where you have a chance to ask Ben Hill anything and everything about Fringe. This is the first in a series of Twitter chats leading up to the 2013 festival. #HFF13 chats will occur on the last Monday of every month from 6:00pm to 7:00pm PST.

We can’t wait to answer your questions and to hear what you’re planning for this year’s festival.

You (or one of your friends) can be the head graphic designer for the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival! All you have to do is enter our first ever design contest next week.

Dates of the Contest

You can start submitting your designs for the qualifying round at 99designs.com/people/hollywoodfringe starting Monday, January 28th. To ensure your design is eligible for the final round, make sure we receive your concept by the end of the day on Thursday, January 31st.

What We Want You to Design

Every year, we produce a printed guide of all the shows produced at our festival. This contest is centered around the GUIDE COVER IMAGE; the seminal representation of the 2013 festival.

Here are three guides of years past:
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2012
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2011
www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide_2010

Generally, the cover image includes our mascots – “the freaks”. The five main freaks are included on the cover of the 2012 Guide. The “look” of these freaks can be adapted to fit the your unique aesthetic so feel free to play into your comfort zone (see the links above for examples of previous adaptations).

The winner of this contest is immediately eligible for additional work finishing off the rest of the guide design. See below for more info.

The Big Prize

The winner of the contest will receive $499 and be eligible for another $1000 to finish off the guide, produce the button and create the image for the 2013 Festival Tee. Anyone can participate, they just need to create a (free) account on 99Designs.com.

We’d also adapt the images above to be used as print and online ads.

Other Info

Our team has lots of experience working with designers and we have in-house adobe suite experts, so we won’t be constantly going to you for minor updates.

We are ready to answer your questions, so feel free to communicate at will. Just email us at [email protected].

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to your submissions!

Thanks to everyone who attended the first Town Hall of the season last Thursday— we were thrilled to see lots of new faces mingling with some of our veteran participants. There was a great vibe in the air— we’re more convinced than ever that the fourth annual festival will be the best yet. A big thanks to Theatre Asylum for hosting the event!

In this Town Hall, we discussed a wide range of topics surrounding preparations for the 2013 Festival.

For those of you who missed it, we recorded the proceedings.

Enjoy!

Having trouble viewing the slideshow in this post? Here’s the direct link.

Still have questions? Email us at [email protected] or join us for the first of our monthly Twitter Chats on Monday, January 28th at 6pm. You can join the conversation by using #hff13.

If you’ve tweeted @HollywoodFringe, reblogged a Fringe Tumblr post, liked a Hollywood Fringe Facebook update, or participated in the #HFF13 tweet-up, you’ve likely already interacted with me. My name is Rachel and I manage the social channels for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I’m also the instigator of this new Staff Spotlight series which we’re kicking off today. Every two weeks, we’ll feature a different Hollywood Fringe Staff member and ask them questions about what they do at the festival.

For this spotlight, I’ll answer the most common questions I get about the Hollywood Fringe and social media in this blog post.

How did you end up doing social media for the Hollywood Fringe?

The first year of the festival I had been arranging meetups for local LA fringers prior to the festival in LA and essentially dominating the #HFF10 hashtag and interacting with other participants. For the 2010 Festival, I was named Twitter Mistress because of my incessant tweeting. The second year I was also a participant and helped to promote shows including Voices from Chornobyl. Most fringers from 2010 and 2011 know me mostly from interacting with me on Twitter from my personal account ( @RachelStoll). After two years of being a participant, Ben Hill and Stacy Jones asked me to come on board to help them run social for the 2012 festival.

Do I have to use Twitter to get a full experience of the festival?

You don’t have to use Twitter to get a “full” experience just like you don’t have to go to see every show or visit every venue to get the “full” experience. Every fringe experience is unique and complete in itself. A lot of participants are on Twitter and it can be a great way to meet new people. If you do want to connect with other artists prior to the festival I’d highly suggest diving into the #HFF13 community and start tweeting. We’re already beginning to ramp-up for the festival and conversations are already happening.

Why do you host tweetup/What is a tweet-up?

Tweetups are where people from Twitter get together IRL (in real life) to meet and chat and tweet. It’s a great way to put faces to handles. I host them because I think it’s important to meet people offline and for me it is sort of a throwback to my informal tweetups and meetups during the 2010 festival.

What new stuff are you working on for this year’s festival?

More engaging blog content is one of my main objectives for the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival. I feel like the blog has a lot of potential, so you’ll be seeing some cool stuff this year that we haven’t done before. I’ll also be launching Twitter chats this month as a way for participants to connect on certain topics and get questions answered about the festival. These are different from tweetups since they are entirely online and are only an hour.

Also, I’m working on integrating more images and video into everything. And there’s some top secret stuff in the works as well.

Have you thought about [insert social network here]?

Yes, but feel free to suggest anyway. We are really selective about which networks we use because we want them to make sense for the community and the festival.

Happy New Year! Now that 2013 has arrived, it’s time to start preparing for the fourth annual Hollywood Fringe Festival. Registration opens in just over three weeks, so start the adventure and create a project today. This year, we’ve extended the festival an entire week (read more about the new dates here).

We know, we know— June feels awfully far away, doesn’t it? That’s why we’ve decided to put on a party on February 2nd, the first annual Fringe Benefit. And of course, the first of a series of Town Halls is coming your way on January 17th. Read on to learn more!

The Fringe Benefit
We’re happy to announce that we’ll be hosting a new event in 2013, the first annual Fringe Benefit. The affair will occur February 2nd at last year’s Fringe Central Station locale and will serve as both a fundraiser as well as a registration kickoff for the 2013 festival. The event will feature live entertainment, a silent auction and a one-night revival of the Fringe bar. Tickets are $25 at the door, which will open at 7pm sharp (pre-sale tickets are $20). Attendees must be 18 or older. All proceeds will go toward the 2013 festival.

The full lineup of entertainment for the Fringe Benefit will be announced at the festival’s first Town Hall of the season.

2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival Town Hall #1
2013’s first Town Hall will be held on January 17th at 7:00pm at Theatre Asylum. This is the first of three town halls that we’ll be hosting before June and will focus on the registration process and participation in this year’s fest. All ages and levels of experience welcome. Anyone interested in attending should RSVP on the website in order to secure a seat. We’ll also be recording the Town Hall as per usual, so you can check it out here on our blog if you can’t make it that night.

2013 should be an exciting year filled with new developments and an even bigger party, so make sure to follow us on Twitter (@hollywoodfringe or via #hff13) and Facebook, or follow our blog for more updates.

And as always, if you have questions, feel free to email us at [email protected].