Adelaide Festival ticket sales up 50% on last year

Image: Kurt Vile

A week out from its official opening, ticket sales for the 2017 Adelaide Festival have surged 50% on the same time last year to the highest in over 20 years.

The box office has topped $3 million, with organisers saying demand is right across the entire program.

Between March 3 and 19, the festival will feature 31 music, theatre, opera, dance, film and visual arts events. Twenty-seven of these are ticketed. There will be 16 Australian premieres, 17 events exclusive to Adelaide, and three world premieres.

The music component includes Neil Finn, Remi, Rufus Wainwright (doing the Prima Donna opera and selected parts of the Rufus Does Judy recreation of Judy Garland’s 1961 Carnegie Hall show), Kurt Vile, Hot 8 Brass Band, All Our Exes Live In Texas and Lord Echo Sound System.

The strong consumer demand is an early vindication for co-Artistic Directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield. It is their first program.

“We are so delighted that Adelaide audiences and our visitors from interstate and overseas have responded to our 2017 program with such eagerness,’’ they said.

“Every part of the program was developed with great love and care and from a firm understanding of Adelaide Festival’s central role in the cultural life and reputation of this state, and our national and international role as this country’s pre-eminent international arts festival.’’

One of the major draws is the Barrie Kosky-directed sold-out Glyndebourne Opera production of Handel’s Saulis. It’s attracting consumers from outside South Australia, with 40% of ticket sales for the show attributed to interstate and international.

Another highlight will be Riverbank Palais, the floating 800-capacity venue on the River Torrens that pays tribute to Adelaide’s popular 1920s Floating Palais de Danse. It will host free and ticketed events including a free Neil Finn show.

Healy and Armfield also reached out to a younger demographic, offering tickets for theatre, music and dance for as low as $5 for teenagers.

The 18 and Under Rush scheme revives the Theatre Passport initiative in the 1980s and 1990s where high school students could get unsold tickets for $1 – something that Healy says she took advantage of as a teenager and which sparked an obsession with the arts.

Additionally, concession card holders can name their own price for deeply discounted tickets to selected performances, based on what they can afford.