The biggest Edinburgh Festival Fringe yet has seen a 1% drop in tickets issued according to figures put out by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society yesterday afternoon.
As the Edinburgh Festival Fringe entered its final few hours the Society announced an estimated 1,857,202 tickets were issued for shows, events and exhibitions in 279 venues across the city this year. This compares with 1,877,119 tickets issued in 2011. The figures do not include free non-ticketed events.
There were fears that this year's Fringe would be overshadowed by the London Olympics, however there appears to have been a boost in Fringe ticket sales since the Games ended on 12 August.
“I’m delighted to say that the Fringe is in fantastic health," said Kath M Mainland, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, "The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012. The loyal and enthusiastic audience has once again been treated to the most amazing cultural experience and has been both entertained and challenged again and again by a programme of spectacular work across all artforms and from all around the world."
While ticket sales were marginally down, the Fringe grew this year in terms of participants. An estimated 22,457 performers took to the stage in Fringe 2012, compared to 21,192 in 2011 and 21,148 in 2010, with 42,096 performances of 2,695 shows.
The Fringe, this year, opened a new box office in Glasgow Queen Street station (pictured) in partnership with Scotrail and Virgin Money.
The end of the Fringe has also been marked with the news that the next Chair of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society will be Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, the Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.
Fringe stats
- Fringe 2012 featured 42,096 performances of 2,695 shows in 279 venues
- Fringe 2011 featured 41,689 performances of 2,542 shows in 258 venues
- Fringe 2010 featured 40,254 performances of 2,453 shows in 259 venues