A Letter from the 2024 Producers
Cannonball is the first and the largest “Hub” of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The hub is run and curated collaboratively by a rotating cohort of artist-producers in direct response to the evolving trends, needs, and desires of the creative community in Philadelphia and beyond. By pooling resources, Cannonball offers affordable production opportunities to a widening range of artists working in a variety of disciplines. In 2023, Cannonball Festival represented 60% of the total number of performances at Fringe Festival and nearly 50% of its total number of productions. With each iteration we learn a lot about what works, what doesn’t, and which directions we want to see Cannonball move in response. As we enter our 4th year, we're excited for some new changes: our new rotating producer cohort model, updates to our programming - including a new special presentation track and new venues, and by the end of 2024 we will have incorporated as our own independent non-profit. While our production model, and our Core Values remain the same, this year we're concentrating our efforts on these initiatives:
Abundant, not Enormous: We're intentionally downsizing the number of productions we present in an effort to ensure that we have the resources and capacity to care for each artist and audience member in our community - and while that means less total performances, we hope it actually makes space for deeper opportunities for artist-to-artist engagement, more programming in addition to our mainstage shows and outside of our main performances spaces (hello new Nooks & Crannies venue!), and a smoother experience for audiences and artists alike.
Accessibility Auditing: At Cannonball we welcome a diversity of abilities, bodies, and identities. This year we've allocated funding to audit accessibility at Cannonball Festival overall in order to determine concrete steps that will create a more inclusive Festival. By working with disabilities services professionals and community leaders to identify obstacles and pain points, we will develop actionable plans to address those issues for our future festivals and programming. We recognize this work as an ongoing process, and we hope that what we are able to accomplish this year acts as a foundation for continued strides towards making Cannonball a welcoming, accessible, destination for artists and audiences alike.
Experimentation as Visioning: As we refocus the scope of Cannonball Festival, we maintain a sharp attention to the vision of a new kind of arts presentation model that we are building. Cannonball remains a platform for performances of all genres and disciplines, but this year we're giving particular consideration to work we feel might not be able to be produced elsewhere: risk-taking, difficult-to-define performances of many styles and mediums that resist easy categorization. We're excited by ideas that push the boundaries of form, bring something new to the community, and challenge long-held perceptions about the limits of live performance.
BUT don’t think we’ll lose all that swashbuckling Cannonball swagger that you’ve come to know and love! As Cannonball grows and evolves we invite you to come along on our journey of continual discovery. We're excited to take that journey with you all and we can't wait to see what we get to make together this year!