Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe set new box office records

Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival shifted 72,000 tickets by the weekend, with box office revenue of $5.98 million, up 31% from last year.

Its mix of ticketed and free shows drew 316,129 to 70 events between March to 17. The attendance figure includes WOMADelaide which drew 92,000 over four days.

They included 10 world premieres and 17 Australian exclusives, many which sold out before the festival began,

“We thought that the 2018 Adelaide Festival would be hard to top,” executive director Rob Brookman AM said.

It was the third event for artistic directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healy, whose tenure was extended to 2023.

Brookman, Armfield and Healy have also been honoured with honorary doctorates by the University of Adelaide for what vice-chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen called their “outstanding and sustained contributions to the arts and festival scene.”

Adelaide Fringe smashed its box office record with 825,000 ticket sales, a 17% increase on last year.

The free events drew over 200,000.

50% of sales went to the smaller venues while the other half were at the major outdoor hubs the Garden of Unearthly Delights, Gluttony and RCC Fringe.

By removing inside charges for tickets under $35 and halving the inside charges for all others, Fringe paid out an astounding $17.5 million in box office settlements paid out to Fringe artists and venues.

Adelaide Fringe also improved its accessibility initiatives, this year partnering with Deaf Can:Do and the Royal Society for the Blind and appointing a diversity & access coordinator.

Fringe director and CEO Heather Croall, who oversaw her fourth Fringe this year, said:

“The buzz around Adelaide has been absolutely electric and we are just blown away with what we’ve been able to achieve this year, from record-breaking ticket sales and improving accessibility to putting on one of the biggest celebrations of Indigenous culture that this city has ever seen.”