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Pleasance withdraw from 2-4-1 ticket offer

Submitted by icewarrior on Sat, 26 Jun '10 8.16am

Having spent hours poring over the Fringe brochure planning shows for my three day visit, I call the box office to book tickets. The final price is £70 more than I anticipated. Why? Pleasance venues have withdrawn from the "Friends" 2-4-1 ticket offer AFTER the brochure has been printed. I feel very angry about this. Firstly the box office did not mention this when my booking was going through - poor customer service. Secondly this is surely a very short-sighted move on the part of Pleasance and smacks of sheer money-grabbing. It seems that this action has finally priced me out of the Fringe. After attending for the past 14 years, 2010 will be my final year. Adding up the cost of hotels, shows and food it is now too expensive. The spirit of the fringe is gradually being lost. Ticket prices make it difficult to take a chance on new and unknown performers so people tend to stick to people they have heard of or seen on the telly.

I am very sad. I feel as though I am losing a good friend.   

If you are right then this sets a bad precedent. Don't forget though that although the big four venues - Pleasance, Assembly, Underbelly, and Gilded Balloon - get most of the headlines, they are also often the priciest tickets. There's many more shows out there that are more affordable and free festival shows that you don't have to pay to go to (they make their money from booze sales). Of course, the quality of these shows varies, and could be seen as more of "a risk". But then again the spirit of the Fringe is also about taking a punt on the unknown.

Yes it's true that there are cheaper venues, even free ones and over the years I have "taken a punt" on many an unknown performer. That is one of the joys of Fringe, sitting in a boiling hot attic or freezing basement in an audience of three, discovering a new talent or enduring a total stinker. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that overall things are becoming very pricy and this decision by Pleasance - a very influential player - does not help. The fact that it was done after the brochure was printed and distributed is what really gets my goat though.

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