MARGARET ATWOOD & VERY
HUNGRY CATERPILLAR
TOP SELLING EVENTS AT BOOK FESTIVAL
The Edinburgh International Book Festival
has today experienced a phenomenal demand for tickets and the launch of Margaret
Atwood's new book in St
John's Church,
Princes Street
on 30 August sold out in under two hours - together with The Very Hungry Caterpillar in the RBS
Children's Programme. Over 50 events from 700 across the adult and
children's programmes sold out by 3.00pm today including Vince Cable,
Antony Beevor, Garrison Keillor, the Writing a Novel Workshop, Tom
Kitchin, We're Going on a Bear Hunt,
the Drawing Manga workshop, Richard Dawkins and David Sedaris.
The 2009 Book Festival programme welcomes
750 authors representing 45 countries who will appear in readings, debates and
conversations in Charlotte
Square Gardens
this August. Other highlights include appearances from Ben Okri, Joss Ackland,
David Simon, Douglas Coupland, and Margaret Drabble.
The quality of the programme this year and
the special nature of the events - each event is a one-off and takes
place in a relatively intimate venue - combined with comparatively low
ticket prices has meant that the demand for tickets has been greater than in previous
years with ticket sales up to 3.00pm this afternoon exceeding the first full
day of sales in 2008.
300 customers were queuing outside the
specially created Box Office at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre
at 8.30am when bookings opened. Iain Hunter and Marc Capapanni from Edinburgh were first in
the queue having waited outside the EICC from 4.20am this morning. They
were hoping for tickets for Richard Dawkins, Tom Devine, Jeremy Paxman and Neil
Gaiman and were delighted to be able to purchase all their choices.
Richard Holloway, 2009 Guest Director of
the Book Festival said "Once again, we are delighted that the Book
Festival programme has proved so popular. It is a great reflection on the
breadth of our audience and the strength of our programme that events across
every genre are selling out so quickly."
"The Festival has invested a
significant amount of time, staff and financial resource to develop a system to
cope with the demand and we are delighted that we have been able to deal with
so many customers satisfactorily today. All our systems are working well
and we have been taking ticket sales over the telephone, the internet, by post
and at the EICC consistently since 8.30am. We know that due to the
extraordinary demand a large number of potential customers were finding it
difficult to get through on the phone or via the internet, however they were
patient and kept trying and ticket sales have reflected this. With over
700 events in the programme, there are still thousands of tickets available to
see world class authors - both internationally renowned and relatively
unknown."
The Box Office moves to The Hub on
Castlehill tomorrow, Tuesday 23 June, until Thursday 13 August and is open
Monday to Saturday from 10.00am to 5.00pm. Tickets may also be booked
online - www.edbookfest.co.uk or by phone 0845 373 5888. Phone lines are open Monday to Saturday,
10.00am to 5.00pm.
For more information see
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