Say You Were There From the Start

Sponsorships of the First Annual Festival breathe life into what began as a spark of inspiration to create an exciting performance arts entity and experience in Provincetown—to secure it a spot on the map of international performance festivals.

Festivals worldwide have seen sustainable creative cultures sprout up around them, providing the ability to develop educational and community arts programs that help their towns and cities thrive all the year round.

There are such visions for Afterglow, both in the short and long term, designed to make Provincetown an off-season destination for both artists and audiences, and to bolster community and commerce of all kinds. Some musings to this end are to be found below.

But first Afterglow must learn to crawl and build the requisite muscle for realizing all its future dreams. And sponsorships provide the ability and environment to make the festival’s debut an auspicious one.

The inaugural season of Afterglow is focused on providing the festival its basic necessities. Operating as a tax-exempt entity is itself a process that requires legal, administrative and accounting services.

Sponsorships of the First Annual Afterglow Festival fuel its growth into a vital Provincetown entity and a star on the map of the international festival circuit. They provide the festival all the basic necessities—office space, utilities, administrative support, theater space, required insurance, security, paper and supplies, all the mechanics to build a well-oiled machine that will work for the community at large.

Support helps provide payment for the artists in various ways. Afterglow is fortunate to be presenting the crème de la crème of performers in their field today. It is a precedent the festival insists on setting. And a standard it intends to maintain. That said, the artists participating this first year are doing so without such compensation as other existing festivals can offer.

Afterglow has the privilege of bringing these artists to Provincetown, in large part, due to the fact that the artists themselves believe in the festival. And this is a bond and a trust we seek to honor and nurture. Sponsorships help us pay for transportation and lodging for the artists. For the engagement of musical directors and accompanists and for technical staff.

Ticketing, security deposits, insurance, fees and surcharges are all costs of renting theater space in Provincetown, which your donations and sponsorships defray. There is promotion, web presence, graphics, printing, and public relations which will be a crucial element to making Afterglow a regional and national success story.

So as much as Afterglow wishes to dream of its future in the development of artistic and educational programs, year-round workshops with visiting professionals for adults and children, outreach to international artists and festival winners, our own contest and awards component and category events, Winter events, Fringe elements and a whole artistic industry based upon the original spark of inspiration that has brought us to this point of incubation. We ask you to help us provide the Afterglow Festival its basic nourishment so that it may be born this Summer of 2011 and begin its journey toward providing Provincetown a future that is consistent with its origins as the birthplace of the modern American stage.