by PATRICK LEJTENYI

For a borough that makes much ado about being the artist capital of Canada, complains Jeremy Hechtman, the Plateau isn’t doing much to help the people who put that particular feather in the cap.

Hechtman, the artistic director behind Montreal’s popular Fringe theatre festival, is in a scrape with the Plateau’s government, headed by veteran councillor and borough mayor Helen Fotopulos, over the festival’s access to the Parc des Amériques, at the corner of Rachel and St-Laurent. The park has served as the 10-day festival’s nerve centre since 2000, doubling as home to its box office—which operates out of a rented trailer—and its famous beer tent, with its 10 p.m. last call. It also hosts a number of outdoor performances, ranging from acoustic music sets to small theatre pieces.

But late last year, the borough received enough complaints from nearby residents to clamp down on the festival. The city handed Hechtman and his Fringe partner Geoffrey Agombar—the festival’s only full-time employees—an ultimatum: no beer sales or live music after 9 p.m., and the gates have to be closed by 10 p.m. According to Hechtman, capping beer sales by even one hour a night might force the festival off the Plateau—or even kill it altogether.

Turning off the taps

Hechtman says the festival tries to be good neighbours with the people living nearby, but one ornery resident may kibosh the good times. “Every year we invite them down, but there’s this one woman who never shows,” he says. “It’s this little old lady who throws eggs and water at us—although for some reason she does show up for the drag races.”

Hechtman says the borough sent a letter to the city’s festival liaison department, not to the Fringe directly.

“We got one letter with 12 signatures on it,” confirms Marc Snyder, a Fotopulos aide, who adds that the Plateau borough office has received other, individual phone calls and e-mails complaining about the festival. Snyder also says the borough has tried to accommodate the Fringe as much as possible while taking into account residents’ needs. “This is a 10-day festival,” he says. “The people living there need a break too.”

Hechtman says late-evening beer sales account for 80 per cent of total beer sale budget, adding, "If the tent goes, so does the beer sponsor. If the beer sponsors go, so do other sponsors." (The Mirror is a Fringe co-sponsor).

Because ticket proceeds go directly to the performers, those sales are key to keeping the festival alive. The beer tent also acts as a draw to the box office in the evenings, and if they don’t have access to the park, attendance will suffer, especially for shows starting later in the evening.

“It’s not feasible for us to set up the tent and not sell beer at night,” says Hechtman.

Snyder doesn’t believe the box-office will suffer as a result of an earlier last call, and points out that the city even offered to extend beer-selling hours during the day. He also believes the figures Hechtman presents concerning the value of late-evening beer sales are inflated.

French gains, Franco threats

While the Fringe will be back at the park this summer with the new hours—the 16th edition starts on Thursday, June 8—Hechtman says he is exploring other potential venues in the neighbourhood, although initial returns haven’t panned out. “If there’s nowhere available on the Plateau, we’ll have to take it somewhere else,” he says. In the meantime, he’s hoping to put together a letter-writing campaign directed at Fotopulos and her fellow Plateau councillor Michel Prescott. For more info, visit www.montrealfringe.ca.

The festival may in fact be a victim of its own success. Since setting up at the park, attendance has almost tripled, says Hechtman. It’s made especially strong inroads among francophones, who now constitute 50 per cent of the estimated 53,000 attendees, up from 15 per cent of 18,000 in 2000.

But Hechtman is still worried about the Fringe’s relatively small size in a city drowning in massive outdoor festivals. In previous years it’s survived in part by preceding them. For instance, the Jazz Fest, the jewel in festival city’s crown and usually the first biggie, starts June 29 this year. But the Francofolies, another major player, is moving from its traditional August dates to June 8 to June 18—the exact same dates as the Fringe. “That’s going to kill us with the francophone audience,” says Hechtman. “We’re tiny compared to them.”

Snyder doesn’t believe the Fringe is endangered. “Look, I love the Fringe, Helen loves the Fringe,” he says. “[The beer sales are] the one place we’re not agreeing. But on that specific issue we’ve been firm since day one.”