I’m one person and that’s who’s writing this. Despite my editorial duties on this site, when I write in this space, it’s my Soapbox and mine alone. I’m speaking for myself and not any one of the twenty plus other writers you read here regularly. Some of them, in fact, may have drastically different opinions. This site is a conversation, and in that conversation I’m but one voice. If you have a difference of opinion, there is a comments section and you’re also invited to offer an alternate view, whether you’re a regular writer on this site or not.
What you’re about to read is biased, incredibly biased, just like any good op-ed piece. I’m a co-founder of the Infringement Festival, a festival which I hold near and dear to my heart. This post, however, also does not necessarily reflect the views of the thousands of artists and volunteer organizers who have participated in the Infringement and continue to do so around the world or the hundreds who infringe here at home.
The Infringement is a festival dedicated to using art to challenge oppressive structures, and having fun while doing it. It was designed to capture the spirit of the original Fringe, lost when the festival started charging artists several hundred dollars to perform and trademarked the word Fringe itself.
I always felt that the best way to achieve this goal was to offer a real alternative. While I am an avid culture jammer with Optative Theatrical Laboratories, theatrically opposing companies like Starbucks, American Apparel and Canadian mining giants over the years to name a few, I always felt that the best approach with the Fringe was just to do better on our own terms.
While not all of my colleagues agreed with me on this, it was a large part of our approach recently. And it worked. The Infringement grew and even the folks at the Fringe seemed to mellow a bit. Gone were the days of blanket bans on anyone remotely associated with our festival entering the Fringe beer tent. Gone were the malicious rumours that all Infringement shows were cancelled and that we weren’t a “real festival” anyways.
I personally went with Infringement colleagues to Parc des Ameriques, a public park temporarily converted into the private “Fringe Park” (also known as the “Fringe Beer Tent”) for the duration of the festival, on the first day of the Fringe this year. People at the Fringe were very cordial with us and it seemed like this year it could very well be the time to start building bridges.
We had a plan to present new Fringe producer Amy Blackmore with a giant novelty cheque and legitimately offer her a free trip to the Buffalo Infringement Festival. While the Infringement in Montreal is small and underground, Buffalo Infringement is one of the largest festivals in the region and is comparable to the Montreal Fringe in size and scope, while also incorporating a much larger line-up of music and arts not traditionally associated with the Fringe. We hoped that she would see such a huge event operating very well without charging the artists a penny to participate and without depending on huge corporate sponsorship money to survive. We hoped that she would bring these experiences back with her to Montreal and help us shake things up a bit.
I wasn’t supposed to be part of this scene, opting instead to perform in an alleyway as part of Car Stories, an interactive guided theatrical walking tour/show that this year was connected to the scene at the Fringe Tent. Now, to clarify, this is a show for three spect-actors at a time. It’s a very intimate experience that does not take attention away from whatever is going on near it in the streets or on a stage in a bar or in Parc des Ameriques.
Given the innocuous and light-hearted nature of what we intended to do, the seemingly more open approach of the new Fringe administration and the fact that all this involved, really, was Donovan King and a few associates sitting down and having a beer in a park, we had every reason to think that there wouldn’t be any problems and our olive branch might be accepted and even welcomed. Well, that wasn’t going to be the case.
I received a call informing me that there was “a huge problem at the Fringe” so I headed down to see what was going on. When I arrived, Donovan King and two other colleagues were being told by Fringe security chief Ace Lopes that they could not enter the park. Lopes then informed me that, regardless of my involvement with what King had planned to do that day and because of my general association with Infringement, I was denied entry as well. Not only that, “anyone associated with Infringement” was not permitted to pass.
Now, despite the gall of, in one sentence, barring thousands of artists worldwide, including artists performing in both Fringe and Infringement, from a festival that is supposed to be inclusive, it gets worse. They also told a man that I have seen at countless activist and community events but never been introduced to that he couldn’t enter. This man has no association with me, the Infringement or Donovan King and was in no way aware of what was going on that day.
Why couldn’t he go into the Fringe Park and meet his friends? Well, he had been given a flier by Donovan a few days earlier and recognized King on his way in. He gave King a fist-bump hello gesture and that was enough to get him barred. This takes guilt-by-association to a whole new level, it’s now guilt by casual gesture of acknowledgement of brief conversation.
OTL has released a video of these events, so have a look for yourself:
What this video doesn’t show is that Lopes attempted to intimidate and bully my colleagues and I with insults. It also doesn’t show him later letting the actors carrying the giant cheque and expecting to be stopped enter the tent only to personally shove them out. This could either be due to incompetence or a desire to further escalate the aggression level in hopes of making us look bad. He used classic schoolyard bully tactics to try and get a rise out of us.
It worked. I’m not proud to admit it, but it worked with me briefly. When he said I was someone who couldn’t string two words together to make a sentence, I temporarily lost my cool. When he called a colleague a “real pussy” after shoving him, he lost his cool, too.
While Lopes seems to be proud of his actions and genuinely seemed to enjoy playing the thug, I wonder how hundreds of artists, two levels of government and McAuslan Brewery (brewers of St-Ambroise beer and major sponsor of the Fringe) feel about paying this guy to turn his workspace and our public space, into the schoolyard.
Since this event, I’ve seen a Gazette article mocking the Fringe’s actions and heard a CKUT radio commentator disgusted (mp3, right click, “save as…”) with how security behaved. I also read the lone report critical of infringers for going to the park in the first place. While the article itself had a pretty standard “let’s bury the hatchet” tone, the comments (now more than 40) tell another story.
People close to the Fringe have come out in droves, making very personal, and in some cases slanderous, attacks against Donovan King and others. I even read the former editor-in-chief of the Hour admit his bias, attack King and never explain why he found it justified to block coverage of Infringement artists for years at the Hour regardless of their personal involvement with King.
It’s this clique-ish mentality that unfortunately permeates the Montreal Anglo arts scene. It’s present at the Fringe, it’s present in some of the press and it’s what’s driving us apart.
I think that, if it is truly interested in peace and progress, the Fringe should distance itself from the actions of Lopes and the wrong-headed decision to blanket-bar anyone remotely connected, or casually associated, with the Infringement from Parc des Ameriques. I may be dreaming in Technicolor here, but an apology for that decision and the security boss’ actions would go a long way to building bridges in our community.
There are plenty of good people who perform at, work and volunteer for and attend the Fringe year after year. It’s a shame that the actions of a few in security, and one would assume Fringe administration, are distracting from what everyone else is doing.
At the very least, it has become crystal clear to me that a festival that puts permits, fees and borders above all else is anything but fringe. Maybe that’s why when people hear the word fringe, they don’t think of the Fringe, they think of the Infringement.
* Images courtesy of Optative Theatrical Laboratories
while I realize that what Mr. Ace Lopes was doing was what he was hired to do. it seems instead of simply securing the beer tent, he decided to go on a power trip and act the schoolyard bully. It’s true that his bullying tactics and outright assault on my person, without any prior warning to me, worked. I lost my cool, and I then attempted to defend myself. He then continued threatening me, and mocking me like some 14 year old school bully in a 40 year old body. by the time I stormed away, he continued to insult and offend my collegues.
Then I get forwarded an e-mail from somebody who wasn’t there, threatening to sue me for merely attempting to defend myself, despite being clearly provoked.
-It’s people like Ace Lopes that keep me cynical and hating the world I live in.
Some people call this an olive branch some call it a flaming bag of dog poo
Flaming pile of dog poo is right. Honestly Jason, it’s like going into someone’s house and pissing on their rug. How on earth can you look at this as some noble act of outreach? You go right into their performance venue and general quarters (which is in the park, yes – get over it. Festivals always happen in parks, they’re not “commandeering” them, they’re using them) intentionally to create a scene…WHILE ARTISTS ARE PERFORMING. Of course they’re going to overreact, and of course things are going to get out of hand. Second, you pretend you were thrown out because of “who you knew”. Yeah, uh huh…except…YOU’RE ONE OF THE MAIN INFRINGEMENT FESTIVAL ORGANIZERS. I mean come on, stop insulting everyone’s intelligence.
You want to offer Amy Blackmore a trip to the Buffalo Infringement to see what you guys stand for? Great, send it to her in the mail. But this had nothing to do with any “offering” – it was a stunt meant to stir up shit, and then you act the righteous martyr when it actually does.
Perhaps you should post the portion of the video where you start hurtling violent threats at Ace and Donovan tells you to back down. This was all before the cops arrived.
@Chris: See it as you like
@ Shawn: The Fringe is a business in the theatre business. Bringing a bit of theatre to the theatre, when no artists are onstage shouldn’t be a problem. As I said in a response to your post, the giant cheque scene would have taken place between acts – that’s our policy- and ended up happening outside of the tent altogether.
Also, yes I’m an organizer with Infringement. Infringement is much more than a culture jam or even Donovan, so to bar me and anyone associated with the festival or perceived to be associated with it is wrong-headed and discriminatory.
@Shayne: Since when does swearing a bit in a loud voice that not being let into the tent is bullshit constitute “threats of violence”? I already said in the piece that I wasn’t proud of momentarily losing my cool, but I was provoked by a bully…a tactic that hasn’t worked on me in years. This bully then claimed that somehow my 5″8 180lb self was intimidating him. It’s laughable, but what’s not funny is how the Fringe doesn’t want to publicly distance itself from Lopes.