Someone asked me (not completely seriously, I don’t think) why Fresno couldn’t have the Rogue Festival all year round.

Well, we do, in a sense. “Rogue Year Round” held events now and then last year. Furthermore, there are things to do in Fresno all year round (believe it or not). Once you know where to look (the UnderCurrentEvents Calendar can be a good place to start!), there are plays, live music, films, poetry readings, and art exhibits all year around. The Rogue Festival is a great time to get re-energized about everything Fresno has to offer.

Secondly, a lot of people would get awfully tired and/or burnt out if Rogue itself occurred all year round, and we don’t want to take their efforts for granted. I’m not just referring to the people performing and working behind the scenes (though I’m mostly thinking of them), but it is likely that attendees wouldn’t have the stamina to go to Rogue all the time, all year.

As I briefly pondered the question of why Rogue isn’t all the time, I realized what I truly love about Rogue, even as someone who does the artsy-fartsy thing all year.

To me, Rogue is like a dinner party. Yes, many of us eat dinner every day, but a dinner party calls for the best food, maybe even food you haven’t tried before. Maybe Rogue is a potluck, giving us the chance to try a wide variety of things. Even better, though, a dinner party of any kind brings together people, and the talking, laughing, mingling, glaring at people who make rude comments (just kidding), etc. is a hugely important part of the evening.

As I walked around the Rogue Festival all weekend, I just loved all the people that were out roaming the sidewalks. People in line for shows would talk to total strangers about shows they had seen or had thought about seeing. We could complain together about not making it into Tale End when the first show sold out (and we saw each other again when we all got to the second showing early!). You end up mingling with people who might otherwise be outside your “social circle,” clique, etc… There’s a Rogue vibe, if you will, that gets carried like a current from person to person, and it transcends anything you get to experience going to isolated performances (though perhaps the closest we get outside of Rogue is Art Hop). It's something you don't get very often, even in larger cities where there's "more to do."

Great, I’m still thinking about dinner parties, and I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. And as exhausted as I am from all my Rogue-ing all weekend, as I think about how much fun I had and how many fantastic shows I saw (visit our reviews section), I know I’ll be ready for more in a couple of days!