Victoria Fringe Artists 2015

Please read the following carefully before you apply to be billeted in Victoria!

The Victoria Fringe provides billeting in area homes to visiting performers. We will provide billeting for you from the day before your technical rehearsal until Monday, September 2. If you are coming a week early, or staying after the Fringe ends, you'll have to find your own place to stay for that extra time.

“Billeting” means we find you a free place to sleep and leave your stuff in the home of a local person or family - food and rides are not part of this deal. Very often, beds with box-springs are also not part of the deal - you may be sleeping on a couch, futon, or air-mattress, in a spare room, a living room, or a basement, and you may (probably) be a bus-ride away from the Fringe site.

Your host will give you a place to rest your head, as much privacy as their situation allows, the use of their facilities, which usually includes the kitchen, and relative autonomy provided you come and go quietly and respect their house rules. We expect you to clean up after yourselves, and behave. If you behave disrespectfully to your hosts, you will lose this privilege and they have the right to give you the boot. Remember, they don't know you, yet they are inviting you to stay with them, for free.

It will probably be a short bus-ride away from our site. We may not be able to billet your company together if there are many of you, although we assume that if there are two of you, you could double up - and we can billet couples together. We will absolutely not, under any circumstances, billet pets of any kind.

We know this is not for everyone, so think about it if you want to use this service. We endeavour to provide you with the most suitable free accommodation possible. If you need something better or closer, we highly recommend that you find your own accommodation - we can recommend inexpensive hotels and hostels downtown, and Paul's Motor Inn offers a special Fringe rate - cheap and very close to all of our venues.

If you have friends/family in Victoria who might put you up, or if you stayed with someone last year, please make sure to let us know so we can contact them first. We will offer the same perks to your billet (2 festival memberships and 10 tickets, or one festival membership and a Fringe Superpass.) It's a nice idea to bring your billet a little gift from your home town - just a thought. Treat your host well and, more often than not, you'll make a friend or two who will insist you stay with them the next time you're in town.

The people who offer up their homes to touring fringe artists pretty fantastic, friendly, cool individuals, who love the Fringe and want to help. If you appreciate that fact, and require billeting, please complete and return the billeting form. it's part of Online Forms Package #1. There is a small administrative fee for this service: $25 per person in your company. That's for the whole time, not per night. This allows us to hire a billeting coordinator - it's a big job, as you can imagine!

We will try to have your billeting assignment about two weeks before you arrive. It won't be before then. Our Billeting Coordinator will contact you a week prior to your arrival to confirm your arrangements and give the particulars of your billet, so make sure we know where you are. We have always billeted everyone who has requested billeting, so don't worry. Just get your form in on time and we'll find you a place to stay.

When you fill out a billeting application, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions we've outlined above.

Non-Resident Tax Withholding Info for international artists

If your company is not from Canada, there are a few things you'll need to think about this spring.

1. Travel Documents (make sure everyone in your company has valid ones - all the rules changed recently so what you used to be able to enter Canada with may no longer be enough.)

2. Letter of Invitation - we will email you a pdf of this letter shortly. Please "file" it somewhere safe on your computer or print off several copies so we don't have to resend later. There is a line on the letter for your signature - the letter will function as our contract.

3. Regulation 105 Withholding Tax - non-residents are subject to a 15% withholding tax on earnings in Canada, to be deducted by us at source and remitted to Revenue Canada on your behalf. You can apply to have this tax waived in whole or in part, but you do need to fill out a form. There are 2 forms you need to complete.

Have a look at the table "Schedule A" (and other information) about non-resident regulations here:

Guidelines for Regulation 105 

Go here to get the form for your Individual Tax Number (ITN) if you don't have one already (it's a short form.)

ITN Application

 Then go here to get the Reg 105 Waiver form.

Regulation 105 Waiver Application

You can send both forms in together.

We strongly recommend that you look into this at least 30 days prior to the festival - by the end of June is recommended. If you don't fill out the form and have a waiver approved, we have to withhold the tax and send it to Revenue Canada - that's all there is to it.

If you apply well before the Fringe and your waiver is not approved, there is often time to appeal and they have been known to reverse a decision based on additional information - but not for last-minute applicants. If you have questions about the form, please contact us.

For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian geography, this is what you need to know before planning your trip:

If you are on tour but aren’t flying, give yourself two days travel time from Edmonton to Victoria by land and sea.

Directions: turn left and go over the Canadian Rockies for about 550 miles until you reach the Pacific Ocean, (good to know if you’re planning to tour in your 1961 Volkswagen van), then take a 1.5 hour scenic trip by car ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island (the last ferry leaves at 9 pm or 10 pm, depending on the day of week and time of year). Victoria is on the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island. Schedules and fare info: www.bcferries.bc.ca . Edmonton to Victoria is about 90 minutes by air, and there’s some good deals out there, so if you are traveling light you might want to check them out – try www.westjet.com.

Our Festival opens on Thursday Aug 27, with our annual block party and Fringe Preview on the 26th  – try to be here for that because it’s a good place to promote your show and get the buzz going early.

Questions? (250) 383-2663 or [email protected]

The waiting list has moved to its own page for easier access, and can now be reached through the top menu bar, or CLICK HERE to go to the waiting list page.