Ticket sales up 21 per cent

The Edinburgh Fringe has had a record-breaking year with box office numbers up 21 per cent on 2008.

A total of 1,859,235 tickets were sold for festival shows this year – which excludes the hundreds of free shows in the programmes.

Last year’s sales were hit by problems with the box office system as well as poor weather, but the new figures even outstrip the previous 2007 record by nine per cent.

Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Fringe Society said: ‘As this year’s Fringe draws to a close we can look back on a month of exceptional ticket sales and one of the best festivals in my 20 years in and around Edinburgh.

‘Even in tough economic conditions festivals chime with people in a way few other events manage to. Over the last three and a half weeks I have seen some amazing work, sometimes perfectly trivial and enormously entertaining, sometimes incredibly challenging and often hugely moving.  I have been blown away by the creative energy, artistic vision and drive of the people taking part.’

The Stand Comedy Club saw a similar rise in sales compared to the Fringe as a whole, with ticket numbers up 20 per cent.

Club director Tommy Sheppard said: ‘It's been a record breaking year despite the fact we've had to operate behind an iron curtain imposed by the city's tram builders. This is a vindication of our strategy of keeping prices down and quality high. The average price of  a ticket was just £7.62 at the Stand.

‘Most of our shows ran up a good surplus which we were able to use to subsidise the ones which did less well. As a result we've been able to underwrite the production costs of all shows and not one of our performers this year will lose any money on the cost of doing their show.

‘The only strange thing was that this seemed like a festival in reverse with the busiest week being the first and last weekend seeming like the bank holiday that never happened.

Across the Fringe, an estimated 18,901 performers took part in 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues. Comedy made up 35 per cent of the programme followed by Theatre with 28 per cent.

Published: 1 Sep 2009