The Stage

Fringe sales up again

Published Tuesday 31 August 2010 at 19:36 by Thom Dibdin in Edinburgh

Initial estimates of ticket sales at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show that sales for this year’s event were 5.2% up on 2009’s record levels.

The fringe finished on Monday, with early estimates putting the number of tickets issued at 1,955,913, which also incorporates an element to include some unticketed free fringe shows.

This increase on last year’s figures lags behind the year-on-year increased capacity of the whole event, however. The number of performances was up by 17.5%, and while the number of venues was static, several sizeable performance spaces, including the 1,030-seat McEwan Hall, were added. This means that average houses at the event were down by 10%.

Venue bosses and the fringe administration were positive about the results. Festival Fringe Society chief executive Kath Mainland said: “Edinburgh is, without doubt, the world’s leading festival destination and audiences continued to be inspired and enthralled by the many and varied events on offer.

“I have seen and met performers from all over the world, from established names to those making their first foray into the industry. They have attended the fringe for every possible reason - to make audiences laugh, think and imagine, and to get their work seen and develop their creative skills.”

Smaller venues reported that they had held their own. At the Stand, artistic director Tommy Sheppard told The Stage he was “pretty chuffed” that results had stayed roughly static given the recession, the fact that last year’s sales were record in themselves and the increase in competition.

Of the larger venues, Assembly artistic director William Burdett-Coutts said that ticket sales were proportionately equal to last year.

He added that the Assembly, like the Stand, noticed disparity within the venues on ticket sales.

“The known names have drawn an audience,” he said. “What is becoming increasingly difficult is to find an audience for those names which aren’t immediately established. It has equally been difficult getting reviews for a lot of those shows. That has impacted on a lot of the smaller shows.”

At Underbelly, joint artistic director Ed Bartlam reported that the McEwan Hall had done exceptionally well, with a programme that mixed big-name comedy and musical theatre.

However, he stressed it was not all about the big venues. He said: “This year, it has been all about theatre. If you look at the big ticket shows like Roadkill, Beautiful Burnout, Lidless, Blackout, it is about really exciting new theatre, which has stimulated, has been thought-provoking and has been very well produced and performed.”

Besides increased ticket sales, the Festival Fringe Society reported that more performers than ever before made use of its participants programme, with 4,000 people attending their events and four times that number employed its services at Fringe Central.