Joe explained that his gallery will be one of the small performance venues for a number of Rogue events, "Its space, that's used as cafe space and just because of all this right here. It's great, that's why I opened it
For the artists and performers the Rogue Festival is a chance to be seen and heard in small, medium and large venues in and around this central Fresno neighborhood called The Tower District.
Bryan Patrick is a magician who has been coming to the event for 7 years, "The Rogue Festival is really a great opportunity for performers to do what they do best. And I really got to hand it to the people who put the rogue festival together."
While he deftly turned a one dollar bill into 4 quarters the rest of the performers regaled our crew with their talents. Some of the performers are local like Bryan Patrick others like comedian .
Bob Brader traveled across the world to be here. A friend told him about it when he was performing in London, "We were at the London Fringe Festival and Tommy said 'Hey I know about this place called the Rogue' and he headed to Fresno for the first time." His stand up comedy kicked off the first evening at the one venue located in downtown Fresno the Full Circle Brewery.
2011 marks the tenth anniversary for Rogue in Fresno. And it has grown from a back yard event with a couple of dozen people to one spread around Central Fresno that this year organizers believe will see 10-thousand people over its ten day run.
René Newlove, a Rogue Festival Board member describes it this way, "It's independent. It's sort of subversive but it's something that's truly vital to what we are in society, so the Rouge, the Rouge is here to stay."
There are literally dozens of choices of entertainment on a dozen plus stages with tickets ranging from 3 to 9 dollars. The performers receive all of the money from tickets sold to their events. Check out the Rogue Performance Festival on-line for more details.
Organizers promise ten days of music, comedy and offbeat entertainment. Here's what they say;
The Rogue Performance Festival enters exciting year number TEN celebrating Independent Performance and Art ... and has grown into one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the West! Started in 2002, this annual non-curated, non-juried* festival showcases a variety of disciplines including theatre, dance, music, puppetry, storytelling, spoken word, visual art and film. Plus, 100 percent of the box-office go to the performers!
*NON-CURATED & NON-JURIED simply means no stuffy, so-called expert decides what is good or what you should see. We at the Rogue believe that YOU, the paying audience, can decide that for yourself. We hope you enjoy the Festival and support its return next year.
