Melbourne Festival summary 2016 updated after War and Peace

Melbourne Festival summary 2016 updated after "War and Peace" 

The 2016 Melbourne Festival was the 31st festival and we have attended everyone.  We saw fifteen shows and this is updated after seeing "War and Peace" on October 30th 2016.

I provide my summary and feedback:

Buying tickets:

I purchased tickets the Recital Hall Melbourne immediately following the Melbourne Festival launch. Thank you to the ticketing manager who assisted one of the staff with our purchases.

More ticket sellers are needed at the 2017 launch.  I always buy our tickets on the first day of Melbourne Festival tickets going on sale.  This year was the easiest in years as the staff were more prepared than previous years with their knowledge of events, genres and locations.

I thanked the staff who assisted me with purchasing our tickets.

Brochure:

We obtained the Melbourne Festival brochure at the launch.  Delivery of our mail brochures was about five days later.  We gave any extra brochures to friends and highlighted possible suggestions that may interest them.

Festival Planner:  I did not like pages 94 and 95 of the brochure at first because events were categorised via each show or genre in previous brochures.

I have now changed my mind and preferred this layout as it was easier to see if you were duplicating dates or shows.  The font is still  too small and the Festival Planner needs to be over two pages in order to be able to read it clearly.

Please include the dates for the next two years' Melbourne Festival in the brochures as was done in earlier publications.

I rang on October 26th to check if the 2017 dates on the Melbourne Festival website were incorrect as it stated "Sun 25th October 2017".  Sophia was grateful for me pointing out the "typo" as the festival concludes on Sunday 22nd October 2017.

This may seem pedantic but when I have local, interstate, and overseas guests organising their travel plans in advance the accuracy of the dates is important.

Venue announcements:

I am not impressed with the inconsistent pre-show announcements made at each venue.  "Off" with a phone is off.  If they choose to say "please turn phones to silent" then include "This means no texting during the show" as stated at the New York City Centre Theater.  I am sick of attending theatre and people rudely texting or taking photographs during a show.  The ushers need to be more vigilant.

Mobile phone etiquette and usher training:

This needs to be addressed urgently as this destroyed and interfered with our enjoyment of shows. The lights from the screen, texting, phone calls, recording are distracting not only for us but other patrons as well.

Statistics:  Six shows had major mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Three shows had moderate mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Three shows had some mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Six shows had no mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

A woman in A Row stalls made a phone call as the lights went down and the MSO began playing. Iota walked on stage and sang a verse before this woman concluded her phone call.  Her female friend took photos with her camera held high.  Patrons were in absolute shock, as was Iota!

I am tired of trying to ask people to turn off their devices!

The David Bowie tribute at Hamer Hall was the only show where the staff tried to be vigilant in stopping phones and cameras.  The following day I rang to thank the Front of House Manager and congratulate his staff on trying to stop the distractions.

"War and Peace" had no mobile phone incidents, though about six people walked out.

Starting times:

In 31 years of attending the Melbourne Festival, and seeing many shows each year, there is only one show that we have attended that has started on time.  Interestingly it was driven by technology and time.  The only show to begin on time was "Since I Suppose." in 2014.

In the 2016 festival 5/15 shows started within three to five minutes of the scheduled time.

I understand the issues with the Front of House ensuring the foyer's are clear etc.  I sincerely congratulate the efforts of the staff in starting these shows within a reasonable time.

There are many reasons why starting on time is important.  One is not educating patrons that the venue will wait for them to wander in.  For some patrons they need to time their toilet visits for longer shows that have no interval.

The 2016 Melbourne Festival had the most shows that started within five minutes of the scheduled time in the festival's 31 year history.

An aside:

The timing of the Melbourne Festival is the perfect "SEGUE" for Melbourne as it slots neatly between the AFL Grand Final and the Melbourne Cup.  One press announcement regarding Halloween described this time period as the "SOFT SPOT" between these Melbourne events.

I urge the Melbourne Festival board and management to maximise the leverage of this "SEGUE".or "SOFT SPOT" in their future promotions.

Festive atmosphere:

The festival did not seem to have an atmosphere on the streets of Melbourne.  Sadly we missed the
"Les Tabours De Feu" and still have not seen one of the decorated trams.

I think that not having the Festival Hub was a sad loss.  We kept asking ourselves "where were is the new hub?"

Page 69 of the brochure and the "Festival Lates" should have been promoted more in emails etc.

My Favourite show:

Only one previous Melbourne Festival has come close to the consistent quality of programmes on offer. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that I had numerous favourite shows at the 2016 Melbourne Festival.

"887", "The Echo of the Shadow", and "The Money" were my favourite three shows.  The other eight (yes eight favourites) were split marginally due to audience interference etc.

Three shows received a 9/10
Two shows received an 8.5/10
Five shows received an 8/10
One show received a 7/10

Two shows received a 6/10

One show received a 2/10.

My score for 14 shows as follows: This equates to a score of 105.5/140 =75.36% satisfaction.

If I take away the lower three shows there is a score of 91.5 out of 110 = 83.19% satisfaction.

After seeing "War and Peace" the new statistics are as follows:

Three shows received a 9/10
Two shows received an 8.5/10
Six shows received an 8/10
One show received a 7/10

Two shows received a 6/10

One show received a 2/10.

My score for 15 shows: This equates to a score of 113.5/150 =75.66% satisfaction.

If I take away the lower three shows there is a score of 99.5/120 = 82.92% satisfaction.

Note that these scores do not justify the enjoyment of the festival.

If mobile phones and technology were not distracting then my satisfaction would be higher.

Communication:

I was so impressed with the communication from "Since I Suppose" before the event in 2014. They also built my curiosity and interest.  They organised a Question and Answer session on Tuesday 28th October 2014.  This event was wonderful to be able to celebrate such a unique event, meet with the cast and crew, and also to give closure to a very good Melbourne Festival.

Sadly the email notice for "The Echo of the Shadows" Q&A was sent on the day of the event. The following was received at 12.42pm on October 22nd 2017:

"We wish to invite you to share your experiences at a free discussion at ACMI 7PM tonight—Saturday 22 October—with Director Enrique Vargas and the cast from Teatro de los Sentidos, hosted by our Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway."

Suggestions:

The communication and emails for "The Money" differed to the website.  We did not know about the "Live Streaming" as this was not in the brochure or in the reminder email.

Some people knew about the live streams and took advantage of this during the show and used this to manipulate the result (which we understand is part of the process).

Plus we did not give our permission for our images to be used on the Facebook page of Kaleider.

The communication needs to be consistent.  Plus release forms or consent needs to be given by audience members if they are to filmed and then shown on Facebook etc.

Possible commission:

Maybe you could have "Piracy Pirates" who pop up and make announcements prior to shows to educate the audiences that sms, texts, use of iPADs and tablets, making and receiving phone calls, blocking the stage and the screen (by lifting recording equipment high) are unacceptable behaviours.

Congratulations and thank you:

Congratulations to the Melbourne Festival Board, Jonathon Holloway and his staff on presenting either the best Melbourne Festival we have attended in 31 years.

The 2016 Melbourne Festival provided such a consistently high standard of events.


Overall the 2016 Melbourne Festival gets a mean average of  7.6./10.  This is an excellent score considering that three events really brought that score down.

2016 will be soaring in my heart and memory for many years to come as this was a sublime festival.