The Stage

Edinburgh Festival Fringe ticket sales drop 10%

Published Wednesday 27 August 2008 at 17:25 by Alistair Smith

Full coverage of the Edinburgh Festivals

Bad weather and ongoing problems with the central box office have meant that ticket sales at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe have slumped by around 10%.

Figures for the 2008 event show that ticket sales have dropped from last year’s all-time high of 1.7 million to just over 1.5 million tickets sold. The news follows a festival which has been hit by persistent rain and ongoing problems with the fringe’s central box office.

However, fringe director Jon Morgan insisted that organisers were “pleased” with the result.

He added: “This is the third year that the fringe has sold in excess of 1.5 million tickets, signifying another fantastic year for the world’s biggest arts festival.

“At the start of the festival many were worried about the loss of venues, impact of the Olympics and the economy. In a difficult year, with record rainfall and problems with ticketing, fringe-goers have come out in force and enjoyed the festival.”

The 2008 event featured 31,320 performances of 2,088 shows in 247 venues, and around 18,800 professional and amateur performers took part.

This year’s festival was the first time that comedy had made up more of the programme than theatre, with 32% of shows, compared to theatre’s 29%.

Earlier this month, festival organisers announced that there would be an investigation into the failure of the recently introduced ticketing system in the fringe box office, as well as an inquiry into the future role of the Fringe Society itself.