Artists toolbox

To see your ticket sales:

Can we get Comps for our friends?
You can have four comps to give away.

Can I get Comps for other shows?
No! – But see the Artist Card note below.

Does The Fringe give out any other comps?
We will give out comps to accredited press, sponsors, judges and a few prize winners. Occasionally other people whose presence we believe benefits the Fringe or yourself, bookers, potential funders, etc.. These will all be recorded. We also allow Fringe Staff and Volunteers to go into shows if there are empty seats.

If you have someone coming who you think should have a complimentary ticket please discuss with the Box Office

So there is no way I can sneak into a show?
Your Artist Card will allow you to get into three shows on a ‘standby basis’. Your card will be punched each time – so remember to pick up your card.

Artists card will offer discounts at some cafés and bars as well as ‘stand by’ tickets to up to three shows.

We will prepare Artists Cards for all performers individually listed in the programme. If you have performers not listed, technicians or other support staff please let us know at info@nelsonfringe.co.nz.

Please pick up your artists card from The Refinery ArtSpace any time the box office is open.

5 Our Accommodation Partner is YHA Nelson. They are delighted to offer a 10% discount off bookings from 5-14 March. Their accommodation ranges from beds in dorms through shared, doubles and single rooms. They are five minutes walk to Refinery ArtSpace and Yaza Comedy Club, and about 30 minutes walk to Red Door Theatre.
Address: 59 Rutherford Street, Nelson.
To get this discount please book through their website, using the promo code: Fringe 26.
Book Accommodation at Accents Hostel
Apply the promo code once you have selected your room.
If you have any issues please call 03 545 9988.

Programmes: We are happy to hand out free programmes for your show as the audience goes in, however we cannot sell them. We are happy for you to sell merch, however you will need to do so in a way that does not effect the smooth running of the venue.

Merch: The Fringe is not able to sell merch on your behalf.

Nelson Fringe Awards will be decided by an independent panel. You will automatically be entered into all awards except the Development Award, which has the following criteria:

An award for a piece of work that has had no more than two previous runs anywhere, and a total of no more than six performances.

If you are eligible for the Development Award please let us know at info@nelsonfringe.co.nz.

Nelson City Centre is pretty small and you can walk around most of it quite easily.

Nelson has a brand new fleet of electric buses with much improved routes. Unfortunately they must be solar powered because they all stop when the sun goes down, around 17:00 – 18:00! You can find the timetables here.

From The Airport: Busses run from early morning to early evening.

Alternatively you can grab a taxi (about $35 to the city).

Supershuttle cost around $10 but you need to book in advance and you can have a long wait.

1903 Square
Top of Trafalgar Street, Nelson

Fairfield House Meadow
48 Van Diemen Street, Nelson South

Red Door Theatre
95 Atawhai Drive, The Wood (by Founders Heritage Park)

Refinery ArtSpace
114 Hardy Street, Nelson

Suter Theatre at The Suter Art Gallery
208 Bridge Street, Nelson

WAA! Club
183 Bridge Street, Nelson

Yaza! Comedy Club 
Montgomery Square, Nelson

Image: We need one photo to represent your show in our printed programme and on our website . We recommend this is the same image that you use for your poster.

We will use the image in a square format. It should be approx 1mb in size.

50 word blurb: This is what represents you in the printed programme and online, and needs to tell people why they should come to your show. This, alongside the photo, is what most people will see before deciding to buy a ticket!

Plus one word: We don’t want to catagorise you but… people do like it. Please choose one word to define your show. These are our standard genre, but if you really don’t fit into any of these, please create a new one: Theatre, Comedy, Improv, Music, Dance, Cabaret, Spoken-Word, Family.

Age rating and warnings: the age ratings are a good indicator for ticketbuyers.

We do put a warning if appropriate, e.g. for violence, nudity or swearing where you would not expect it, e.g. early theatre shows.

Trigger warnings: People coming to fringes expect to be challenged, so we do not put trigger warnings unless there is something that could genuinely cause issues or distress.

50 – 300 word blurb: We will use this additional info wherever we have a chance to expand, for example if we have media requests.

Reviews: Short, snappy excerpts of reviews are helpful for us.

It’s best to keep your poster design pretty simple. Along with the show title and image (ideally the same one as on the website), listed below are some other things that your poster should have:

1. The Nelson Fringe Festival Banner to go at bottom of poster.
   Download 2026 poster footer.png
2. Venue name and address
3. Show date(s)
4. Show time
5. R restriction if needed

Remember your poster will be displayed in public so should not cause offence to anyone.

You may wish to put a ‘tag’ line.

We strongly recommend avoiding:

• Long text – people don’t read it!
• Ticket prices – although we have a standard ticket price (plus booking fees), patrons can choose to pay more for their tickets to support artists – it all gets quite confusing on a poster.

Remember the point of your poster is to push people to the website where they can see more details.

Nelson Fringe will put up generic Fringe posters around Nelson and Tasman. We will also put up individual show posters in venues and other limited locations.

You may print as many or few posters as you wish. If you are local to Nelson, we encourage you to distribute posters or flyers to cafes and noticeboards etc.

If you want to print posters and/or flyers there are two options.

1. For Nelson performers: print and distribute yourself. Please deliver 3 x A3s and 6 x A4s to the Fringe via Refinery ArtSpace, 114 Hardy St Nelson 7020.
2. For non-Nelson performers: use our ‘Poster Print Service’. Send us your poster file and we’ll organise to get them printed. We will then put up in venues and select locations.

Details of ‘Poster Print Service’ below.

Purpose: This service is aimed at non-Nelson based companies so that we can print and put up the posters at venues etc before you arrive in town. If you are Nelson-based it’s much eassier for you to print your own and simply deliver 3 x A3 and 6 x A4 to us at Refinery ArtSpace in early February. Please do not deliver more as we will not be able to display them (although you are welcome to go to cafés, etc in town).
Deadline for posters designs: Thursday 05 February (NZ Time)
Tech specs: PDF sized to portrait A3 (420mm x 297mm). JPG files 300dpi resolution or at least 2MB in size. PDF is preferred to a JPG.
Cost:
Poster Package – $18 (incl gst) for 3 x A3 and 6 x A4.
Flyers – $50 for 100 x A5 (these will be at the box office and are also available for you to hand out).
Payment: The $18 will be deducted from your ticket settlement after the Festival. If you want to take advantage of this service, please send your files to info@nelsonfringe.co.nz.