Charm City Fringe

Charm City Fringe Festival celebrates cutting-edge and quirky theater and performing arts throughout 11 days of performances across multiple venues in the Bromo Arts District, September 27th-October 6th.

CCF produces an annual performing arts festival in Baltimore that unites people through art, builds community, provides a place for weird, and empowers artists in producing bold, fun entertainment.

Festival Director Scope of Work

The Charm City Fringe Festival Director plays a leadership role in ensuring the festival runs successfully. The Festival Director acts as the point of contact for all festival artists and contractors leading up to and during the festival, and serves as the main logistician to ensure all festival events and all venues run smoothly, from theater production and stage management to strike. The Festival Director is the single point of communication between the Board of Directors and the artists and staff, and is considered to be a representative of Charm City Fringe to all artists, staff, patrons, partners, etc.

The Festival Director reports to the Board of Directors.

This is a paid W2 position that runs from April through October 2023.

Responsibilities

The Festival Director is expected to:

  • Train and manage both paid and volunteer front of house operations for the festival, and assist Board with recruiting for these roles

  • Ensure proper permits and licenses are secured including event permits, alcohol licenses, etc.

  • Ensure all festival events and venues meet regulatory requirements, are adequately signed, branded, and staffed

  • Facilitate the adjudication panel to select artists to perform in the Festival. Compile all adjudication information and data to share with the Board of Directors

  • Be responsible for fielding and troubleshooting/solving production based artist requests/questions, leading up to and throughout the festival referring to proper channels as necessary

  • Act as the main point of contact and communication for venue managers and front of house managers

  • Supervise venue managers and front of house staff; Collect nightly venue reports from both Front of House Managers and Venue Managers

  • Compile close-out reports from venue managers

  • Oversee the set-up and strike of all stages

  • Oversee and assist with venue load-in and venue load-out

  • Coordinate venue walk-throughs and layout and design with festival technicians

  • Act as primary communications facilitator for all festival contracts including staff, artists, site owners, vendors, volunteers, etc.

  • Coordinate performance and festival site logistics and management, including all pre-festival and festival day(s) activities

  • Prepare layout schematics and load-in/load-out schedules and detailed program plans; conduct event briefings/debriefings, and develop program materials

  • Manage all technical requirements of the festival and events, engaging and managing contracted tech providers and managed venue technicians, in consultation with the Production Committee

  • Manage daily opening & closing procedures for box office, concessions

  • Produce events including Launch Party and Festival Awards in collaboration with the programming team.

  • Brief the Marketing lead on the creation of all venue-specific Signage.

  • Work with Board of Directors Production leads to create and implement front of house processes and procedures

All festival employees and strategic contractors are expected to:

  • Complete an end-of-festival staff survey to receive and provide feedback on festival staff

  • Attend a festival debrief meeting in early December to discuss your experience at the festival

  • Deliver a high level of service delivery to Artists/Presenter and Venues.

  • Participate in regular meetings to ensure deliverables are on track.

  • Embrace the CCF Values in all areas of work.

  • Foster the development of positive and communicative working relationships across all delivery areas

Qualifications

  • Experience working with and supervising diverse staff of varying skill-sets and skill levels

  • Experience working with artists in an administrative capacity

  • Needs experience in theater production, ticketing software, managing staff,and google suite

  • Must be organized, good at troubleshooting, creative problem solving and able to work as part of a team and independently

  • Ability to work proactively with attention to detail

  • Positive attitude, motivated, flexible, and willingness to step in where needed

  • Committed to abide to Organization Handbook and enforce it as necessary within the venue

  • Fringe experience a plus!

  • Slack and Asana familiarity a plus!

Compensation

This position is paid at $30 per hour with an expectation of approximately 500-600 hours in total, with a heavier workload in September and the first week of October (leading up to and during the Festival). 

This position is not eligible for overtime.

To Apply: 

Please send your resumé and statement of interest to hr@charmcityfringe.com by Tuesday, April 30 2024. Applications are accepted and interviewed on a rolling basis.