Adelaide Festival sets new box office records

Adelaide Festival continues to be a cultural, tourism and economic smash for South Australia in 2019, easily breaking box office records set for itself in 2018.

“It once again put Adelaide centre-stage as one of the world’s great festival cities,” said festival executive director Rob Brookman.

A 2019 Economic Assessment report by Barry Burgan on behalf of Economic Research Consultants found that it injected $76.8 million into the South Australian economy.

This was up from $76.1 million from the year before.

The report also revealed that 19,046 visitors came from interstate or overseas for the festival. Visitor bed nights increased to 141,258 from 138,021 in 2018.

Its box office takings of over $6 million ($6,056,904) represented a 32% increase and were the biggest in its 59-year history.

The 2019 event was the third presented by joint artistic directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healy.

Healy said, “We are delighted that the Adelaide Festival has again proved its importance to the South Australian economy; a measure of its value that sits alongside its cultural and reputational significance.

“Of course, its economic impact is possible because of the Adelaide Festival’s catalytic role in bringing audiences and communities together with the world’s greatest performers, writers and artists. Indeed, it is the promise of these thrilling, communal experiences each March that has kept visitors from around Australia and across the world pouring in to Adelaide.”

This year’s festival staged 485 performances across 70 ticketed events, with 1,270 artists from 56 countries.

It boasted 10 world premieres and 17 Australian premieres, and 23 events exclusive to Adelaide.