Went for a couple of hours to the 25th Annual Fringe Festival with Team Chiang and Charlene. (It’s North America’s first Fringe) We met up at the Second Cup and headed out to wander the grounds. Although it was a worknight and parking was very hard to come by, I was surprised to see the Fringe was pretty empty as compared to the years when I went during the weekend. There was also a thunderstorm warning in effect so that also may have put a bit of a damper on some people’s willingness to go out. Anyways, Charlene was a Fringe going virgin so we showed her around; Ange and I bought the requisite mini donuts (no green onion cakes this time) and I also showed Charlene the tasty sweet and salty Kettle Popcorn that’s always at the Fringe.
Great to see the layout of the grounds is mostly the same even after all these years. Although, there were a few odd booths out there. For example,
hankerchief ghosts on a string (aka Pinky Ponkies) were on sale for like $20.00. There was also the skipping rope tent (looks like the guy on the would like a free lesson) and finally the ubiquitous spray paint can artist guy whose art I wasn’t all that impressed with (I’ve seen beautiful scenery done with less props, not just multicoloured geometric shapes floating in space).
Saw a lady with really cool umbrellas; I thought she was selling them but turns out she’s using them for shade. 🙁
Saw an acapella rappish type band which wasn’t all that bad at the Kid’s Fringe Stage and 2 buskers trying to work their crowds. The one guy on the Edmonton Journal Stage could not keep our attention because he talked too much while the other, a magician was really quite good. Interacts with and jokes with the crowd, using whatever’s happening and working it into his show. Good times. With no rain!
On the way home, I saw so much lightning in the south. it was amazing! The thunderstorm was lifted but the lightning storm was approaching. I went home and tried to capture the lightning on my camera and this is the best shot I got of an actual bolt:
I hope you can see the little itty bitty bolt of lightning I captured. I was playing with the manual settings to but I’m not very good yet.
Bertha