Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.89 | Feat. Erica Fee from the ROC Fringe Festival!

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Epic Buffalo Bills Comeback & Rochester Fringe Festival Highlights In this episode of Good News York, host Mike Brindisi passionately celebrates the Buffalo Bills' epic comeback victory against the Baltimore Ravens, which marked a historic moment for the team and its dedicated fans. Brindisi dives deep into the exhilarating details of the game, sharing personal stories and amusing superstitions. He also highlights upcoming events and shares a personal endorsement for All Pest of Syracuse, a reliable pest control service. The episode transitions to an exciting interview with Erica Fee, CEO of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival. Fee discusses the origins, highlights, and unique features of the festival, emphasizing its commitment to providing a platform for diverse and innovative performances. The interview covers essential details about the festival's events, including free shows, kids' activities, and headline acts like Chelsea Handler. Fee also touches on the festival's growth, planning, and the impact of COVID-19 on live performances. This episode is sponsored by Ads on the Go. 00:00 Introduction and Buffalo Bills Victory Celebration 00:53 Reflecting on the Game and Fans' Reactions 01:35 Season Predictions and Key Players 03:26 Epic Comeback and Personal Game Experience 04:45 Highmark Stadium's Last Season and Playoff Hopes 06:48 Superstitions and Upcoming Events 08:02 New Content Client and Podcast Plans 10:00 Pest Control Experience and Shoutouts 15:16 Garth Brooks Conspiracy Theory 18:54 Suspicious Dates and Upcoming Interview 19:19 Celebrating Wins and Upcoming Events 19:55 Introduction to Erica Fee and the Rochester Fringe Festival 21:28 Erica Fee's Journey and the Fringe Festival's Origins 25:47 Unique Aspects of the Rochester Fringe Festival 31:55 Planning and Logistics of the Festival 38:37 Impact of COVID-19 on the Festival 41:01 Future Goals and Must-See Events 44:37 Final Thoughts and Information

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and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Welcome to Good News, York. It is Monday morning. I'm shot out of a cannon because my Buffalo bills won in epic fashion. I cannot tell you how long I've been a fan and how it's always that the bills are on the other end of these. kinds of games. It's mind-blowing to be a part of this.

It reminds me of the 90s years even better. I don't know. I'm vomiting happiness right now. If you didn't stay up to watch the game, I feel bad for you. If you left the game, by the way, I'm going to look over here now. If you left the game, you were at

the game and you left because you thought they were down 15 and it was over, shame on you. I'm actually really surprised. I've got to be honest with you. I was getting text from my friend saying, I can't believe the Bill's fans left. You know, I can't believe the show on the crowd.

And I went, ah, you're full of shit. They did. There were fans that were leaving. And listen, I had season tickets during the drought years, 17 years of no playoffs. And even then, people would stay and just get hammered and watch the full game because you never know. So it's very unlike Bill's fans to leave early,

but they did. and shame on you. Lesson learned. Josh Allen is a goddamn God. I am so excited. That game was such a big deal for many reasons. First of all, I get it. Week one, as Kyle Brent says, week one is a liar. You know, don't get too excited and don't get too upset,

whether your team won or lost. Things are going to change. If you remember last year, I think one of the teams that ended up going deep into the playoffs, like got blown. I think the Saints blew somebody out last year in week one. But at the same time, you also get a pretty good idea of what every team looks like. Now, the bills are one of the favorites to win it all, and definitely win the AFC East and maybe even the AFC Conference.

But we all knew that this came, even though it's week one, was probably one of the hardest games on the schedule. Now, somehow the bills lucked out, and every tough opponent that they face is coming to Buffalo. A lot of the teams they're facing on the run. road are not teams that are going to be too bad you know too tough i'm sure they'll drop one or two on the road it happens it's football any given sunday right but it lucked out that not only do they get all the hard opponents home but they probably got the the hardest game out of the way first and that

was against the baltimore ravens who have a defense that i know they put up 40 points but they're filled with first rounders and they've got derrick henry and they've got lamar jackson and zay flowers and mark andrews everybody that you just saw to me i went to into this game going, I know they're going to lose this one, and it's not going to be the end of the world, but it's going to hurt because this could be the difference between Buffalo going to Baltimore or Baltimore going to Buffalo in the playoffs if they see each other again. And we all know what happens when teams come to Buffalo, minus the Chiefs, what happens to them when they come to Buffalo in the snow? Lamar Jackson is openly said he's, you know, he's not great with cold temperatures.

So they beat them in normal temperatures at home in an epic fashion coming back 15 points down. I screamed into so many. I did the thing where, because I, we have a, I have like a man cave downstairs. We have a finished basement. I used to watch the game down there with all the Bill's memorabilia, you know.

It's kind of my spot. But we got this brand new big screen and I wanted to experience it on the big screen and my kids were sleeping, my wife was sleeping. So I was just doing the whole like, anytime something good or bad happened I was doing push-ups because I'm old now

so I can't stay awake too long so like in between like commercials in the third and fourth quarter I was just doing push-ups to get my blood flowing needless to say there are a lot of bills fans that woke up today just shitting their pants going wait they won that now look it was never a blowout

but they are the first team in NFL history to be losing by 15, points or more with, I think it was four minutes left in the fourth quarter and pull it off in the regular season. And it wasn't in overtime, in regulation. I, uh, I am speechless in the best possible way. As I said, it's one game, but it's a game against an opponent that you're probably going to see later, and that could be the difference in a home or a way. And remember this. I posted this on my social media. If this is the last year at Highmark Stadium, for the Buffalo Bills and for the fans.

That was the last home opener last night. It is set up. Now, I know. I posted this on my social media. I posted a picture with all this nice music. And of course, NFL fans just shit on me the entire time. Oh, it's a dream. It's not going to happen.

Buffalo's going to blow it. Maybe they will. But just check out this scenario. If you're a Bills fan or even an NFL fan, just imagine this. It is so storybook. And for you conspirators that think the NFL's a conspiracy, well, here's your story that they should,

use if it is a conspiracy. The Buffalo Bills are heading into their last season at Highmark Stadium. They've never won a Super Bowl. They've been to four in a row in the 90s. Okay? They have the opportunity, especially now that they've beat the Ravens and the way that their schedule has laid out, to finally get the one seed. And what that will mean is that they get home field advantage all through the playoffs.

That means, potentially, the last possible game ever to be played at Highmark Stadium could be against the goddamn chiefs. right at home last game to go to the Super Bowl but there's even more there's a little wrinkle that we're leaving out it would also be the last game in the stadium that you would witness them going to the Super Bowl in the last moments in that stadium but it would be to defeat the chiefs who are knocking at the door of tying the bill's record for going to four consecutive Super Bowls. So what that means is the Bills could potentially potentially beat the Chiefs at home as the last possible game

in the stadium ever, while also stopping them from tying the bill's record of going to four straight Super Bowls. Because if the Chiefs go back to the Super Bowl, that means they went to four straight. And the only difference is they won, I think, two of them. So it's set up for an epic finish, but I just want one before I die. But enough about the bills. I'm fired out of a can. Although Danny, Tripote, our producer, Danny, I owe you a big thank you. I'm a superstitious guy. When the bills were down 15, Danny sent me a picture.

We don't need to talk about what the picture was. All right? That's private. It is a picture. He made me laugh. I am telling you three seconds after he sent that picture as when I believe Derek Henry fumbled or something happens, it's when the game turned and it didn't look back. So unfortunately, I'm going to have to make Danny send me ridiculous pictures. when the bills are failing. Let me know if you have any weird superstitions in the comments.

I love hearing people's superstitions. Quickly, another thing I want to make sure I get to is our friend Diana Nightingale at David's Refuge is throwing another great event on September 13th from noon to four. It is the Pineview Run Champion Challenge in Lafayette, New York. Drivers are going to race for their fastest time. There's music, food trucks, silent auction, games.

we wanted to make sure we plug that we love our friends at David's Refuge. What the hell are you doing? Oh, now your meeting's over, so you're just going to fucking walk in on your own? Well, I'm sorry I was a little tied up selling a new content client. No, I know. But we have a new content client. I'm very excited. You sealed it?

You sealed it? You sealed it? This is exciting. This is exciting. I knocked Danny's ears out. This one's going to be unique. I'm not going to go into too many details, but we're going to do this one a little differently.

This is a person who has written a book. The book's about to come out. The podcast is going to go with it. But we are going to do a, I don't know, I guess you'd call it like a Netflix thing, where we are going to record the whole season of their podcast in advance, and then we'll release it over the course of a year.

But this will be a unique one for us. This is great. It's going to be really fun. Breaking. It's incredible. I think that it's going to be one of these podcasts to get some genuine lessons and very motivational, inspirational, and I don't know, I'm excited. It's going to be cool. Buddy, I'm so happy for you and for us. Yeah. It's fantastic.

And now we're in opposite. You're going to do the work. Yeah, well, that's fine. We're in opposite seats today, which is kind of flipping me out. It is weird. It's weird. Opposites day. Well, listen, I went on, you didn't miss much because, well, we're going to have a great interview coming up with a, we're, we're going to, I have a great interview coming up with.

a woman named Erica Fee from the Fringe Festival. So I'm excited about that. But before that, I was just ranting about the bills. You didn't miss that. Because, yeah, you don't, you know, sports. Don't give a fuck. Sportsball.

But I was just talking about our friend Diana Nightingale from David's Refuge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing a great event called the Pineview Run Champion Challenge. It's September 13th from noon to four in Lafayette. Check it out at davidswrefuge.org. It is,

uh, drivers are going to race for the fastest time. So like you and I could show up. Yeah. We sign up, of course, like in your, in your car, and we race around the track trying to win the fastest time. I mean, who doesn't? I think you have to sign up in advance for that. Yeah, you do. Yeah, that's the idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to plug that real quick. And I also wanted to give a shout out to Ray and to Kelly from all pest of Syracuse. Our clients, of course, their podcast with us here at growth mode. Um, so my wife and I had a little bit of a scare as far as we had some invaders in our home. And what, well, I didn't want to say it, but yes, thank God.

No, we had some visitors in our home. It could have potentially been, I mean, really bad and could have taken up our entire weekend. Thankfully, I immediately text Kelly. She was like, here's what you need to do, and I'm sending Ray in the next 45 minutes. Now, we live in Ithaca. Yeah.

They're in Syracuse, okay? This is a Saturday, and she's telling me. Did she know that when she promised? No, she did. Because I said to her, I said, I can't believe you're going to do this on a Saturday, and you're sending him all the way to Ithaca. I feel bad. But you're trying to talk her out of it.

I know. I should have been more careful. But she said, don't worry about it. She goes, if you guys were two hours away, we would come. Like, that whole thing they talked about on their podcast, and when we had them on Good News York about, They're, you know, the bigger companies that do these kind of pest control things, they're not for the consumer.

They pretend to be. And that Ray and Kelly of all Pests to Syracuse are for the consumer. They are for the people because they're family-run, own business. They proved it to me. And Ray came in, took care of everything, promised us that we'd have nothing to. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman.

And Univorold Boutique River Cruises L'Oweck Bali. to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been standing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts

to hear about river cruising and Unuworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is going to explode? Well, liquid death now makes a better-for-you energy drink. Liquid death, sparkling energy. Feels like a coffee, not an electric chair.

It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose or aspartame or artificial colors and dyes. Plus, it has essential vitamins. You can find it in four delicious flavors that have a clean taste. Scary strawberry, strawberry, kind of a hint of lemon, tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada. Orange, ha, tasty orange with a hint of orange cream and murder mystery. a blend of cherry cola and spices. You see, I love a good energy drink to keep me moving,

and I'm glad now I have liquid death sparkling energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. They have unexstream 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You can buy liquid death sparkling energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-11 or learn more at liquid death.com. Don't worry about it. He's like, you got somewhere to go for three hours? We said, yep. He's like, it'll be done. And so I just wanted to give a shout out to Ray and Kelly

All past Syracuse. Saved my weekend. Go out, you have a nice little dinner with the family. You come back, it'll be all taking care. Listen, don't worry about it, all right? These chemicals fell off a truck. No, we love Ray and Kelly. I'll be honest, there couldn't be a better endorsement for them.

No. Coming out of the woods, you know, coming all that way. Like, I wouldn't have done that for you. I know you wouldn't have, and that's why I didn't call you. Sorry, Mike. But Ray even, But Ray had eight other things that day. So, I mean, it's not even just for me.

They had eight other clients that had things going on. You take pride. Well, I felt like, whether we did or didn't, we felt like priority. I'm sorry, Mr. Brindisi has an issue. We're going to have to be there a little later today, folks. I'm sorry. Yeah. The master, the co-host of Good News, York.

You're familiar, right? Oh, yes. Oh, God. Stop the press. Stop everything. Don't let that man be bothered by an aunt. We cannot. But, you know, as you know, happy wife, happy life.

My poor wife, who doesn't cry often, I wouldn't consider her a crier. She was upset. She was crying because she, you know, when these things come up with pests and rodents and whatever else it is, it could potentially be thousands and thousands of dollars. It could take up days, weeks. Yeah. And not only do they reassure us. You're at football to watch.

Well, and that's the big one. but I said I cannot be dealing with this when the bills are about to play. So shout out to all pest to Syracuse. I'm not paid to say this. I'm just telling you. I don't know where to look because I'll guess I'll look here. Everything they've said on our show and on their podcast with us, absolutely true. I felt it firsthand.

They're the best pest control business, Barnum. And I love it too. Ray takes pride in that. He's like, well, I'm glad you didn't call anybody else because there's nobody better than me. And I'm like, good, good for you, dude. Like, you are, I mean, he's the Tom Brady of pestling. I'm glad that, like, bugs are his business. Because Ray's the type of dude that, like, in another timeline, he's, like, a legit hit man.

For sure. You call him up and go, yo, I got a problem. I got it on control. Don't worry about it. He's the man. You know, and one more thing I'll say about that. My daughter, of all people, brought up something. She goes, Dad, but what, what's going to happen when the pest truck shows up?

Now, all our neighbors are going to know that we have. a problem. I go, you know what? No, they won't because I remember one thing, and this is another reason why I love all Pestic Syracuse, they purposely don't put bugs, like pictures of bugs and rodents on their vehicle for that reason to respect the privacy of their clients. I mean, that's how much thought they put into this, man. It's awesome. No, I know they've talked about that on their podcast. That's something that is a common people that don't want you to think. But yeah, they've handled that brilliantly. And also, I feel like to some degree, so many people have gotten to the point.

where they have somebody like all pests now that they figure out that does the preventative become on a regular basis and put that down, I feel like that's almost got common enough to where like if you see the pest truck in front of your neighbor's yard, you don't immediately think they got roaches or something. That's true. I think you're right. But there's definitely, I mean, your daughter proves it. It's right on that.

And it's another thing that they're thinking of it. Yeah, I remember when they said it on the podcast and, you know, I'm thinking to myself while we were producing it, like, you know, that's a nice little touch of things that they do there. Yeah. But now experiencing it firsthand, I realize how important. important that is. Yeah. So I love them.

Buddy, listen, I'm pretty much all out of what I've done today. I've got an interview coming up again with Erica Fee. Cool. Of the fringe festival. Something I want to talk about this week with you, because I got to show you the video. Yeah.

Dude, there's this conspiracy theory going around. And I'm not a favorite. Oh, I know what you're talking about. You sent me this. Did I? I did. I've heard this theory. I'm not a,

in fact, I almost want to say I'm anti-conspiracy theorist because it's gotten so out of control. but every now and then I'll get one, then I'm like, this is fun. Wait a minute. Hold on. There's this, I don't know if you've heard about this. There's a conspiracy theory going around that everywhere Garth Brooks has ever lived,

gone to school, or played a concert, people have ended up missing or dead. I'll pause for laughter because I laughed too. But then I went down to. The theory is Garth is a serial killer. Correct. Yeah. And I love Garth Brooks. And I don't think he's a serial killer.

But my God, the. the mounting evidence against him I don't know if I want to say against him but you know I just that's a fun one for me what's that what's the term correlation and causation sure like the guy goes to major cities and people get murdered there

yeah like people get murdered there on the days he doesn't go to those cities is what I'm saying oh right like there's some like come on you could put that you could say I'm a serial killer because I'm positive you could track a murder in every major city I've ever visited. 100% valid and that's kind of my stance. I should not myself like that.

But I'm just, I'm entertaining it. I'm entertaining it for. No, I'm with you. I'm with. It's hilarious. I mean, because I'm, you know, we're getting all those run of the middle. Those cities like this person's dead. This person, this is an original one.

My son's part about these type of scenarios is there's more than one person who has spent more than an hour. Way more. Putting this together going, wait a minute. Hold on. this city. Let me look at his concert history. Like, yeah, imagine that. Like, hey, Matt. Somebody with way too much

free time on their hands has had a lot of fun. Matt, come to dinner. Hold on, honey. I'm researching every concert. Garth Brooks played to see if he killed people in that city. You know, the always sunny meme, you know, it's happening with the strings and the, yeah. But it's just a fun one to entertain. I want to delve more into it because I'm intrigued. I'm more intrigued at how

anyone even, because here's a thing. How did you even start that? Right. So, like, what got the ball rolling? Where did you connect Garth? Because it even goes back to when he went to college. I guess he went to college, I don't know where, and some girl went missing. They happened to live only a few, like less than five miles apart,

Garth Brooks' apartment and her while he was. So it's not even where he was playing concerts. It also goes back to when he was in school. It's wild. I think it's dumb, but man, is it fun to entertain. You know what? You know what? You talk about being wild. The reality is the world works in like,

probability, right? There's like a one in a million chance, but that one comes up. It sure does. Once in a while, right? I think we're destined to see one day somebody, maybe Garth Brooks, on their deathbed or after they've passed away, you open up a thing where it's like, yeah, I was a serial killer. I killed somebody in every town I played a country song in. Just like, yep, that wasn't a, nah, I fucking did it. Yeah. You didn't catch me. I mean, we kind of got that with the Cosby thing. Like, all. The, you know, the every, like the, the all-American, like, dad that we loved. Well, yeah, he didn't admit it, though.

That was they just discovered. There was, yeah, there's no getting around that. Everybody, I guess knew, I guess. You put the pudding and you put the refies in to drink. And I don't know. But, you know what we should do is we should kind of run with your theory of poking holes in it. Yeah. Let's just see where I've been or you've been or Danny's been on certain dates and just see if anyone's died in or around them at that.

time. Maybe we shouldn't because that might. It is suspicious. I always suspect the quiet guy. Yeah. Well, anyway, that's all I got. I got a great interview coming up. So got to get ready for that. Let me get out of the way so you can do that. Go close more deals. Dude, congratulations for us. Thanks to you. Monday. It's been a great Monday. It's not even lunchtime yet. The bills won. Everybody in the AFC East also lost. I won over $300 on last night's game. Syracuse won this. That was the net. Syracuse, it was way closer than it should have been. They pulled it off.

You closed a deal. Garth Brooks is a serial killer. This is a great Monday. And we've got Erica Fee from the Rochester Fringe Festival coming up. Stay tuned for that. I'm getting out. Right here on good news York, brought you by ads on the go, get ads on the go.com. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Good News York, sponsored by ads on the go. Get ads on the go.com. Mike Brindisi with you flying solo today. I have a very special guest. I'm very excited to introduce. She is the CEO of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival, a one-of-a-kind festival that has been going for 14 years in the Rochester area, 885,000 plus visitors.

It is September 9th through the 20th. You've got over 600 performances and 30 venues, anything from comedy, theater, dance, music, film. It's amazing. She's amazing. We welcome. CEO, Erica Fee. Thank you.

How are you? Oh, a little tired, but, you know, nothing that concealer can fix. I'm sure you are. You are very busy. This festival is no joke. We are so excited to shine a light on the festival. You know, Good News York was founded on, you know, things that are awesome in New York State, things that are different, things that you're not going to see about or hear about on the news,

because Lord knows you turn the news on. negative. You guys are pretty much a prime example of why this show exists. So we're so happy you gave us some time. Now the fringe festival is very unique in a lot of ways and it is now

nationally known. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got involved with the fringe? Sure. So I am the founding producer of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival. As you Now we're now going into opening our 14th festival, which just seems like bizarre to me because, you know, with COVID years, it seems like five years, but it also seems like 500 years.

So I started this festival. I was producing in London. I'm originally from the Rochester area, but I was over in the UK. I went there for drama school after undergrad and I became a professional actor. And through acting, I got into producing, and I had my own production company. And one of the things that I loved, either performing at or directing at or producing at, was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is the world's largest arts festival. In fact, in terms of event size, it's the Olympics number one, the World Cup number two, and Edinburgh Fringe number three. So I was very much inspired by that festival. And that festival has gone on to inspire about 250 fringe festivals now worldwide,

of which Rochester is one of them. We were the first in upstate New York. We are the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival and the entire state of New York. And we do welcome people from not just the Rochester area, but now all over the country. That's amazing.

You know, one of my favorite parts about this festival and the whole story is how fringe started. It's such a great story. I believe it's over in Scotland if you want. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sending there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart

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Yeah, so in 1947 in Edinburgh, Scotland, there was a curated theater festival, which still exists today, by the way, called the Edinburgh International Festival. And there were eight theater groups who were not invited to participate and when I say it was curated, it means that there was a small select committee who would decide on all the program.

These eight groups were not invited, and so they just, in a post-war spirit, they turned up anyway, and they just brought their sets and their costumes and their props, and they arranged space above pubs and in lecture halls at the University of Edinburgh that they turned into temporary theaters, and they put on their shows, and there was a reviewer who was trying to suggest out what do I call these shows, which are perfectly legitimate, but are not part of the official festival program. And he nicknamed them the festival Fringe. But he also said, this isn't going to happen two years running. It's just a total fluke. Well, it did. It's gone on to launch the careers of everyone from everyone in Monty Python to Kenneth Branagh, Ricky Jerez. The list really

goes on and on. Americans, a lot of Americans also have performed at the Edinburgh fringe and continued to. There's a huge American contingent. So it's really kind of a gathering place every year. It happens for the entire

month of August, but it's gone on to inspire other communities to create their own fringe festivals, all of which are a little bit different from each other. And Rochester's, our first year was 2012. The planning for that actually began in 2008.

I was not in Rochester then. It started with the president of the University of Rochester, wanted a performing arts festival for Rochester. I was in town, happened to be in town in 2009, just on a visit. And I happened to say to someone, why do you think it is that Rochester doesn't have a French festival? This is the head of the theater department at the University of Rochester, actually. And he said, it's funny you should say that. the president of the university is working on this right now.

You should go and meet with them. And I said, I'm not going to get an appointment with the president of the University of Rochester my week back. Anyway, one thing led to another, and I threw my hat into the ring. And I literally said, if you want a fringe festival, I want to come back and run it. And that's what happened. That's absolutely spectacular. I love that. And, you know, another thing I love about this festival, and correct me if I'm

wrong. But from my point of view, what I, what I've seen is that it's a very welcoming festival as far as it's not, I mean, there's going to be mainstream things that people like, but there's also a lot of experimental things and things that are out of the ordinary. So I almost feel like you guys are keeping up with kind of the origin story of fringe, which was, here's these disgruntled performers that weren't invited and they're like, you know what, screw you. We're going to do it. We're going to do it anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is that kind of your mission statement with Fringe Festival

is like let's give everybody and anyone from all walks of life in the creative space a place to be able to perform? Well, French festivals worldwide certainly provide a platform for artists. That's part of our mission. There aren't a stage in spaces for artists to perform. And if you're a performing artist,

you kind of need a crowd. You need a space. So this enables people to be able to be able, to perform. What is exciting about our festival is that we are a bifurcated festival. Now, that just is a way of San Ram, two halves. Like the Edinburgh fringe and like that, that spirit, we have about 39 venues that are curating their own lineups. That is very interesting because we don't have one artistic committee deciding on all the programming. These venues have skin in the game. They've got a little bit of healthy competition with each other. They're really trying to

create very special experiences. And so that is happening. At the same point, we ourselves as an organization, and we are a nonprofit, unlike most festivals, we are also curating some shows. And we are doing things differently than any other fringe actually in the world. For instance, we have a show that is coming into downtown Rochester,

the final two nights of the festival, September 19th and 20th, called Sphere, It's by a world-re-nail group called Da Vinci Verdiqali out of Italy, and they will be hoisting a giant sphere up above the crowd, totally free to attend, by the way, on our crane, and we'll have acrobats inside the sphere and outside the sphere. It'll be backlit, it'll be beautiful. It's going to be fantastic.

We typically have, you know, 15,000 people to some of those performances. So we do those, like, really big spectacle-type shows, Those are shows you generally, not only can you not see elsewhere in New York, you can't see them often elsewhere in the United States. Not at all. Not at all. But then, so then we'll have big shows like that, and then we'll have, you know, smaller shows too. We have a show that's totally sold out. Perhaps no surprise, but it sells out in a New York minute every year called Dashboard Drama.

It's actually on its 11th year, and it's brand new every year, short plays. that are held in cars. And it's four parked cars. And you as an audience member get a ticket to the back seat, you and someone else. And you see a 10-minute short play. And then you rotate to the next car and the next car and the next car and the next car. And it's four short plays, about 45 minutes in total. And honestly, we have many performances of that.

But they sell right out. When we first started doing things like that, people were, I think, like, what is this? What is this theater? What are these shows that are not all in traditional locations? But now it's fully embraced. And all the tickets sell out in about 24 hours for that sort of thing. So we have a huge range. We also bring in comedy headliners.

We have Chelsea Hadler in this year on Saturday, September 13th. Glamorous and glorious Eastman Theater, 2400 seats. So we just have a whole range of shows, something for everyone. That is amazing. That's amazing. Just absolutely amazing. And this is exactly what I meant when I said, you're keeping in with the theme of fringe,

you know, the performances that you're not going to get everywhere. You have had major acts over the years. John Mullaney, Eddie Izard, Mike Barbigula, Barbiglia, Colin Jost. This year you said Chelsea Handler. So you guys are obviously, have been expanding over the years and adding so much.

Now, you mentioned that obviously there's a little bit of a planning committee such as yourself, but you said other venues are also kind of doing their own thing and bringing in their own acts. Is there a process to where you kind of oversee and make sure that the acts that their booking are going to kind of fit in with the theme and the idea of fringe, or do you kind of just say, hey, we trust you? Yeah. No, we don't. We don't. We don't tell them what to book their spaces. There is an open application process. Anyone in the world can fill in. That's in February and March of every year. And as a show, you would upload the details of your show, maybe some reviews, maybe reviews from prior shows, photos, all that sort of stuff. You'll check off the

venues that you're interested in applying at. There are very few shows that would be appropriate for every single venue. Sure. Your application. goes through to the venues and then those venues review it. And a little bit like applying for college, you might get more of the one offer. But we're not, we are absolutely not telling the venues what their program. We think that they know their space is better than we do. We trust them. That's the important part of, you know, having a good relationship in general.

We have a degree of trust. And they knock it out of the park. So we're not going to be heavy-handed in terms of telling them what they can and cannot place in their space. That's fantastic. as a performer myself, an artist, I really do appreciate that and I'm sure the other artists do as well. I'm sitting here talking with Erica Fee

of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival September 9th through the 20th. Erica, something else I wanted to talk about is, so let's just say, and I know there's a lot, like we talked about, there's over 600 performances, 30 venues. I've never been, let's say I'm coming to Fringe Festival. I walk in, what's the, layout like how do I find out where to go what what should one expect when they're coming to the

festival just bring i know it's too much but you know just kind of a summary of what to expect well the first thing that someone should do is diving and there's a there are a variety of ways to dive in one is through our website another is through our app which is if you just let up rochester fringe festival rochester fringe uh the apple app store or google play you can find it And another is our guy, which is a 120-page festival guide. You can go to any of those, any of those roots for information. And you can sort by things that you like. So let's say you're a comedy lover.

You can just sort by all the comedy. Let's say you're only going to be in town for the weekend. Just, okay, sort by the shows that are in town for the weekend. Let's say you're bringing your family and you want shows that are appropriate for kids. You can do that. Let's say you absolutely don't want shows that are appropriate for kids. You can do that. So there are a variety of different routes.

And we just ask people to say, you know, one thing that I think is useful is try something, try one of these big shows that you've heard of. I mean, you've heard of Chelsea Handler. You've heard of, you know, some of the PR advertising that's going on for these bigger shows. But then take a risk on something else. I love that. something that you haven't heard of. Well, speaking of, you know,

you're talking about how there's something for everybody. And what I think is really unique about your festival, too, is a lot of times you'll run into events or festivals where it's meant for adults or it's meant for kids. It's hard to kind of find a place that's meant for both. And you guys have pulled that off. I noticed there is a kids day, which is really important because that can be the difference in somebody saying,

man, we'd love to go to that, but we don't have someone to watch the kids. They can bring their kids. What is Kids Day like? And what are some of the things that they can look for? Well, I'll tell you, Mike, we purposely hold Kids Day on the last day of the festival because the kids kind of run wild. We have everything from at our hub, which our hub is at Maine and Gibbs Streets in downtown Rochester. We call it one fridge place. It's really the place where, I mean, we have all these venues, you know, hidden around downtown.

But that's a good place to go. We have everything from chalk art for kids that's free. We have a disco for kids. We have pumpkin painting. And then we have some shows. We have a glamorous and glorious venue, which I talked about the Eastern Theater, but we've got another one that's amazing called the Spiegel Tense. And that is an important Belgian music hall.

It exists for all 12 days of the festival. The term tent is really a misnomer. it's very much a temporary theater with inlaid old floors and stained glass windows and mirrors. And we're doing a show there nightly called

Cirque de Fringe. Every year is a different Cirque de Fringe. This year is called Cirque de Fringe Clause Out. There's a bit of a cat's theme. It's very funny. It's got all sorts of cert performers.

It's fake. You just have to see it to believe it but we've got a show just for kids. That's Saturday, September 20th, the Cirque de Fringe Clause out and it's appropriate for kids' age, five and over. We have two clowns coming in from Montreal.

They are identical twins. And they are clowns called the Keefkees Sisters. They'll be doing a show that weekend out for us called Jam Sign Up. So we have kid shows actually throughout the festival. But really on that final day, we have many kids shows. We also on that day do an event called Street. which is, I believe at this point, it might be New York's largest break dancing and hip-pop dancing are all-skiles dancing competition, which I feel very important to an uncle every year.

But it's teams of three versus three. And that's for the afternoon, free to watch from 12 to 5 p.m. It's just like, it's very energetic and super amazing. This is super amazing. I mean, I think that's your selling point right there. Fringe Festival, something for everyone. Don't believe me, we have identical twin clowns. I mean, you're right there.

That sells it for me. I wanted a couple more questions because I know you're very busy. Before we go, I wanted to know, though, is this something where people should or could make accommodations or is this more of a go-for-the-day come-back-home kind of thing? We absolutely have all sorts of people who come in. we have a list of accommodations offers on her website. You can definitely come in and spend a few days.

We definitely have a packed schedule. And we have people that come in. We have people that come in from New York. We have people coming from all over the place and make a few days of it. But you can also just come in for the day. There are a wide variety of options available to you. And if you come in for the day, I think you might find that fall in love with a little bit. You'll want to come back for a little longer next time.

I'm already in love with this. This is fantastic. Now, clearly with 600 plus performers of all sorts and, you know, you're, you know, you have 30 plus venues. This seems like, is this like, you know, the festival happens and then you have a break and you start planning right away for the next one? Or are you just, there is no break? Because it seems like this might be a year-round thing for you, I'm guessing. Yeah. Well, every year, I think this will be the year.

This will be the year that I can sit back and just like eat bonbon and then it's going to plan itself. And this is going to be, I'm going to get everything organized. We're really going to finally make it work and we're going to get a proper break. But unfortunately, that has yet to happen. It is definitely a year-round. We're a year-round organization. We actually offer artist master classes year-round. But it takes a year to plan it.

Yeah, we are already planning for next year. We're already in discussion for shows for next year. Something that I was thinking about before the interview that I wasn't going to ask and then it just kind of came up was, you know, so I was in a band for a while and now I do stand-up comedy. And I've noticed since COVID, things are a little bit different with live performance everywhere, not even just live performance just in public, you know. A lot of industries are struggling having people.

kind of come out of the woodwork. And then in some cases, some industries, it doesn't seem like they've missed a beat. Do you, have you noticed any trends that have changed since COVID with, with fringe festival? Oh, God, yeah. So I,

I was actually just elected, or appointed, I should say, by the governor to New York State Council on the Arts. So I am now a council member. And I am interested in talking, to others about that because I think there have been so many changes in performing arts. I mean, one thing that I'm seeing worldwide,

and I'm sure that you've seen, people have become very last minute in terms of booking tickets. I mean, last year, I remember looking at a show and I thought, it's Tuesday, it's Tuesday. Like, we have sold no tickets. What are we going to do? And then, boom, sold out. Yeah.

Like, who doesn't know what they're doing on a Tuesday? Like, a, I know. a Tuesday something I book in advance. No, I know what you mean because, you know, when you're selling tickets for shows, there's some times where you get in that window where you're like, we might need to pull the plug. We're not selling enough tickets.

And then you go, but we kind of should roll the dice on walkups. And so you got to find that sweet spot. And so that's not fun. But, yeah, it's a roll of the dice for sure. Yeah. audiences have become very unpredictable in terms of their buying habits. They've become very late. And New York State, you know, performing arts and festivals were closed the longest.

So it has taken a while. The other thing that happened is that so many arched professionals left the state. And maybe they left the performing arts in total. But, you know, it's finding. finding that knowledge base again. That's what tricky. Absolutely. So where, I mean, every year, just two more questions.

Every year this festival seems to have grown and gotten bigger and bigger and so many different things that are coming and going. Where do you kind of see this going or do you have a goal like in the near future of how this may evolve or even stay the same? But what do we expect for fringe festival in the near future? Well, I mean, I think you know what it's like coming from a performance background yourself. With COVID, for so long, organizations were just trying to put one foot in front of the other. Yeah. It wasn't like, you know, we had all of these goals prior to COVID. And then it was, okay, let's try to get to next week.

So what's exciting to me is that I'm hearing more and more venues. actually feel that they can plan out in future. They can say, okay, let's, let's talk and bring in this show for next year. So that's really nice to be able to have a little bit of forward motion. That's beyond the next week. We really, as our organization, we want to, of course, become a bigger and bigger. And I say, of course, but I mean, that is the idea that we're going to become more and more of a tourism draw.

We want to be able to provide more platforms to artists. We want to be able to provide more accessible art to people. About a quarter of our shows are totally free of charge. The rest are relatively low cost. So we just want to be able to continue what we're doing, especially in this arts funding environment that we're now in. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we here at Good News York want you to continue.

Thank you. last question, I got to put you on the spot, just a little bit. I've never been. There's going to be people listening or watching that have never been. And we're going to go to the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival. Give me one, two, or three things that you personally think it's a must that you got to go see. If you're going to do the festival and you had to pick it, what is? Well, the thing is that I can't have any favorite children.

So I get that. This is all of the download. First of all, I think there's something, like I said, there's something for everyone. Some of our relatively spectacular, very different shows. Of course, I mentioned Sphere that's at Parcel Five, downtown Rochester, September 19th, and 20th. That's the sphere, hoisted up by the giant crane. You're not going to see that anywhere else. We have an amazing immersive light experience called submergence, direct from the UK.

We actually just tested that out last night, and it's unbelievable. But, you know, there's just something for everyone. What I love, I absolutely love is when people try out something new, especially when they try out a show with someone that's a totally unknown. And then they say, oh, my gosh, this person is the next big thing. You know, we had Nate Burgundy here. I love him. Opening in 2015 for a show.

And now I can't even book Nate Bargazzi. No, yeah. he's amazing. He's, uh, yeah, I mean, that just goes to show you, you know,

how cutting edge you guys have been. I mean, you've been getting performers that have, uh, you know, before they broke. And, um,

I mean, that, that's something to, to be proud of. So Erica Fee, the CEO extraordinaire of the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival, going on September 9th through the 20th

in Rochester, New York. Give us the plugs. Where can we find information? Get tickets. It's anything you want us to know. Let's hear it. Our website is a great resource,

rochesterfringe.com. You can also download the festival at, which just search for a Rochester Fringe. And if you happen to come across a festival guide, there's a listing up where they are. They've also been distributed through many papers, either around Central and Western New York, pick up one of those and kind of done.

right in. But RochesterFringe.com, I think, is your number one location for information. Well, Eric Fee, thank you so much for your time. And we will see you at the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival. Thank you. All right. You have a great day. And try to get some sleep.

Thanks. Try to get some sleep after this. Just a little. I'll sleep. All in October, I'm going into Oklahoma. It's bonbons and pillows. It's back. Thank you for understanding.

I get it. All right. You have a great day. Thank you so much. Thanks again. Thank you. And with that, we will be heading out. But we'll be back tomorrow on Good News, York, sponsored by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com. Check out the Rochester Fringe Festival.

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