Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe break attendance records

Both the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe have smashed their previous attendance records.

The Adelaide Festival, which wound up on the weekend, broke last year’s attendance – which itself set a new record – with a 10% rise to $4.5 million in ticket sales.

The Fringe overtook its target, with a 7.8% rise to 708,500 tickets which represented a 3% rise to a record $16.6 million.

In total, the Adelaide Festival sold 353,954 tickets, a 24% rise, which included the 96,000 attendance at Womadelaide, 48,880 at the Art Gallery’s Adelaide Biennial exhibition, and a record 134,000 for the Adelaide Writers Week.

The Womadelaide figure only factors in ticket sales – which as reported in TMN previously, was equal to its 2016 record breaking figure – but not the box office when calculating the Festival’s gross.

Eleven of its 48 theatre, music, opera, dance, film and visual arts events sold out.

Among them were Archie Roach, Kate Miller-Heidke, Spinifex Gum – the project by two The Cat Empire members and WA’s Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir –  Lior, Grizzly Bear and US jazz singer Cécile McLoran Salvant.

This was the second festival by artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy, and received critical acclaim.

“We continue to be buoyed by the joyous response we have received from local audiences as well as our interstate and international visitors who now form such a central and enthusiastic part of our wider Festival family,’’ they said in a joint statement.

The Fringe said that dropping inside fees would mean an extra $1million would be paid out to its artists and venues.

54% of its ticket sales were through small venues, with 46% through outdoor hubs the Garden of Unearthly Delights, Gluttony and Royal Croquet Club.

The Fringe’s free opening night drew 100,000 while an estimated 500,000 viewed the Parade of Light digital projections on buildings.