Edinburgh festivals issue record numbers of tickets

Edinburgh’s international and fringe festivals have both issued record numbers of tickets at this year’s events.

The fringe broke the 2 million barrier for the second year in a row, recording a rise of 5.24% on last year’s figures to 2,298,080, on an increase in productions of 3.79% to 3,314.

The Edinburgh International Festival posted ticket sales valued at a record £3.8 million. The number of tickets issued passed 163,500, the highest since 2003.

This is the first time the two events have been held simultaneously since the fringe moved its dates forward a week in 1996. Attendance at the EIF was boosted this year by two new free events, including a major outdoor event at the start of the festivals, which, with the fireworks finale, took estimated figures to more than 435,000.

Major building works in the city, which turned Bristo Square into a building site and forced the Udderbelly purple cow to move to George Square, appear to have had an unexpectedly positive effect on ticket sales, although several major spaces were unable to operate.

Underbelly, which operates Udderbelly, reported that sales for tickets at the cow itself were up 32%, while the two venues surrounding Bristo Square – the Gilded Balloon and Pleasance Dome – also reported increased ticket sales.

A spokesman for Underbelly told The Stage: “With the ongoing refurbishment of the Bristo Square area and McEwan Hall, we had fewer seats to sell than in 2014 but, seat for seat, we’re up on last year’s number of tickets issued.”

Describing the event as a “resounding success”, he said the Cowgate site saw a 6% increase in tickets sold, and the new Circus Hub on the Meadows sold just under 50,000 tickets.

The Gilded Balloon celebrated its 30th anniversary with artistic director Karen Koren winning the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards Panel Prize for services to comedy.

A spokesman for the venue told The Stage: “We went into the festival not knowing how the building works in Bristo Square were going to affect business, but we’re really pleased to say that we’ve had a phenomenal year and our audiences have been up nearly 25%.”

Although anecdotal evidence points to a reduced use of the Pleasance Dome, with some companies there reporting privately to The Stage that their audience figures were lower than expected, Pleasance artistic director Anthony Alderson said the Udderbelly move had been positive.

The organisation has increased ticket sales by 19% across its two sites, with no increase in either capacity or number of productions.

Alderson told The Stage: “Not having the cow outside our front door has meant that audiences can see us and also the glorious Gilded Balloon building. And we are not as diluted as we were before.

“Figures in the Dome are up. We are consistently up across everything.”

Alderson ascribed the increased ticket sales to a combination of factors, including the EIF’s move, good weather and the increased use of websites such as Airbnb, which he said had made “accommodation to the public a little bit more democratic”.

Also in George Square, Assembly reported sales of 395,000, its most successful year on record.

In the New Town, the major hub on St Andrew Square run by Salt ‘n’ Sauce Promotions, which also runs the Stand comedy club and the Assembly Rooms, saw a slight increase in the number of tickets, with 225,000 tickets issued across the three sites.

Reports of the demise of the New Town as a fringe area appear to be somewhat premature. At the French Institute, outgoing artistic director Vincent Guerin told The Stage that the audiences had held up, with particularly large number of visits from the theatre industry.