ED2013 News

Fringe concludes with record number of tickets issued

By | Published on Monday 26 August 2013

Edinburgh Fringe

And so the Edinburgh Fringe draws to its official close for another year with confirmation that this was the biggest one yet, with more performances of more shows and more tickets issued.

Whilst, because of hard-to-fully-track free show attendance and those productions that sit outside the official programme, ticket sale stats won’t ever be fully accurate, the Fringe Society estimates that 1,943,493 tickets have been issued as the festival enters its final few hours, 5% up on this time last year, and higher too than in 2011 (last year saw a slight slip in tickets being distributed, mainly as a result of the Olympics).

Of course there’s some interesting maths to be done comparing the number of shows and seats with numbers of tickets issued, and it would be interesting to know how free shows compare to paid-for shows in attendance terms, and how many paid-for show tickets were sold at a discount. Though such number crunching is for another day (and, again, on free shows it would always be estimates).

Nevertheless, the Edinburgh Fringe was once again the world’s biggest ever cultural event, and while the economics of performing at the festival will remain a hot topic of debate, it can’t be denied the Scottish capital still boasts the biggest gathering of performers and culture fans each August.

Commenting on the ticket figure estimates, and this year’s festival, Fringe Society chief Kath M Mainland told reporters: “Our loyal and enthusiastic audience has once again been treated to the most amazing cultural experience and has been both challenged and entertained by a programme of spectacular work across all artforms from all around the world”.

She added: “Over the past 25 days, audiences from Edinburgh, Scotland, the rest of the UK and across the globe have been inspired by world-class performers, writers and artists in the largest celebration of art and entertainment in the world. I would like, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people who visited the Fringe this year, to thank them for showing us their incredible talent and courage by bringing so many extraordinary shows and events to our capital city”.



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