New attendance record for Perth Fringe World?

This year’s Perth Fringe World, which wrapped up yesterday (Feb 25 after a month) looks like beating last year’s attendance, according to its director, Amber Hasler.

Exact figures are not in as yet. Last year, the Fringe drew 758,184 people at its free and ticketing shows.

Ticketed events alone accounted for 359,897.

The Fringe generated $10.2 million at the box office, and an economic impact of $84.3 million.

The growth of the Fringe, which began in 2011, has been remarkable.

Hasler said ticket sales in a 24-hour period in 2018 were more than the entire sales in its inaugural year.

“It’s been wonderful to watch all that happen,” she said.

It has now become the third largest event of its kind in the world, after the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringes.

This year there were 750 performances with 130 venues.

The capacity of the Fringe’s pop-up drinking venues has now reached a total of 15,900 – which exceeds the 7900 total capacity of Northbridge’s licensed venues.

An interesting trend is that punters who flooded into the city took up on the Fringe’s new motto, ‘Trust Fringe, Forget Boring’.”

With tickets mostly at $20, audiences seemed happy to try out shows that they did not know much or anything about.

Places as the Perth Cultural Centre and Russell Square which are normally deserted after dark were filled with crowds.

But the Fringe still faces a problem: while businesses agree that the festival increases its takings considerably, some are worried that the pop-up venues could be cannibalising their trade.

Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods told WA Today that events like Fringe attracted people into the city.

“However, we need to ensure these events boost rather than displace trade for existing local businesses,” he noted.

“Legitimate festivals should not be confused with illegitimate pop-up beer barns, which hurt local businesses, damage employment opportunities and have a detrimental impact on Perth’s hospitality industry.”