Adelaide Fringe has doubled its money since 2011, delivering extra $24.3m to South Australia

This year’s Adelaide Fringe delivered $24.3 million to the South Australian economy by attracting more audience members from outside the state, it said in its annual review released yesterday. 

“The number of tickets sold, attendances, total economic expenditure and visitor spend related to the Fringe have almost all doubled since 2011,” the festival said.

In March, organisers revealed that the Fringe earned a record $16.2 million at the box office and ticket sales up 9% from the year before to 658,360.

Total attendances, including free events, rose 11.5% to 2.52 million. 

Now the review, by Economic Research Consultants, digs further into the data. 

The amount of interstate and international visitors hit 18,655, a growth of 38% from 2016. The total estimated number of visitor bed nights rose to 80,800. 

Total expenditure associated with the 2017 Fringe was $81.4 million – an increase of almost 5% on last year’s figure.

The Fringe emphasised that most of the $16.2 million revenue went to the artists – an increase of 80% in five years.

“We’re also excited that from next year, thanks to $1 million of State Government funding, we’re set to become the most affordable Fringe in Australia for artists to take part in, by abolishing inside charges for artists on tickets under $35 and halving the inside charge on tickets over $35.

“That means more money in artists’ pockets.”

Also benefitting artists was the success of its Honey Pot program.

It brought 178 local and international festival directors and arts venue presenters to check out ten export-ready shows each. As a result, 90 acts have been booked at events in London, Edinburgh and New York.

Next year’s Fringe will run from February 16 to March 18.