What do you do with $5000?

Final numbers have been counted and my online fundraising campaign for Roller Derby Saved My Soul brought in $5325 (minus fees). I am incredibly grateful, but now the real hard work begins. Applications are now available for the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals' (CAFF) lottery.

For those of you who don't know, Fringe Festivals in Canada (and in some parts of the U.S.) are members of CAFF, which holds all festivals to 4 basic principles, which you can read about here. They also have a yearly touring lottery that offers 5 national and 5 international companies the opportunity to know 8-10 months ahead of time if they will be participating festivals next year.

Basically, you pick no less than 5 festivals you would like to participate in, fill out the forms, hand in the fees for those festivals, and then cross your fingers hoping you get picked.

At the moment, I am considering bringing Roller Derby Saved My Soul to the festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax next year. This means I need to have $3848,62 available just in case my name gets drawn on October 17th.

If my name doesn't get drawn, I will have to apply to each festival individually in the hopes of being selected for their lottery.

And there you have the beginnings of what I am doing with $5000. Keep your fingers crossed for me!