Nightnews-media :: Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2006 Closing Press Release

---

1.5 million reasons why Scotland should support the Fringe

As the 60th Edinburgh Festival Fringe closes today with over 1.5
million tickets sold, organisers call again for serious support for
the largest arts festival in the world.

Paul Gudgin, Director of the Fringe said, "This is the 6th year of
consecutive growth for the Fringe [see graph at end], and it's
stunning to think that it was only 3 years ago that we were
celebrating selling 1 million tickets for the first time. It's now
time for Edinburgh and Scotland to acknowledge the value of the
festivals and act to safeguard their future".

The growth this year can be attributed to dynamic new venues, such as
the E4 UdderBELLY and to the Fringe's increasing appeal to performers
and audiences.

Paul Gudgin continued "It is the 17,000 performers and the hundreds of
venue managers who are the lifeblood of the Fringe and make this
Festival so great. In a climate of growing competition from other UK
and international festivals including Liverpool, Manchester, Adelaide
and Barcelona [as highlighted in the Thundering Hooves Report],
Edinburgh must remain the most attractive option for performers. I
urge the City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Executive and their
agencies to take the lead and match the ambition shown by the
performers and venue managers. It's only by doing this that we will
encourage new and existing talent to return to the festival again and
again, so we'll still have reason to celebrate our 100th festival."

Anthony Alderson, Director of the Pleasance, said, "This has been a
great year for the Pleasance, most satisfying of all has been the huge
success of high quality new work in both theatre and comedy. It is
great to see so many talented new young companies come here for the
first time, work hard and reap the benefits."

Underbelly Co-Directors Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood are also delighted
with a successful year for the venue. "The arrival of UdderBELLY and
Cow Barn has helped create a new festival hub benefiting all the
venues in the area and also enabling Underbelly to continue to
programme an eclectic mix of new writing, award winning comedy and the
best in music and dance. Taking into account the increase in our
capacity this year, we are delighted to announce our box office sales
are up 36% on 2005."

It has also been an incredibly successful year for the award-winning
Fringe web site, with 51% of all tickets sales by the Times Fringe box
office being made via www.edfringe.com. The web site has also
received a stunning 66,946,538 hits in the month of August alone.

An exact ticket sales figure will be available after the close of the
Fringe.

Notes to Editors

:: The Fringe has a 75% market share of all attendance at Edinburgh's
year-round festivals and annually generates around £75 million for the
Edinburgh and Scottish economy.
:: Fringe 2006 featured 28,014 performances of 1,867 shows in 261
venues .
:: An estimated 16,990 performers were on Edinburgh's Fringe stages.
:: Theatre made up 32% of the programme, followed by Comedy (27%) then
Music (21%). Musicals, Children's Shows, Dance & Physical Theatre,
Exhibitions and Events each provide around 4% of the programme.
:: Over a third (36%) of all shows were World premieres. 4% are UK
premieres, 10% European premieres.
:: 177 shows at Fringe 2006 were absolutely free.
:: It would take you 5 years, 11 months and 16 days to see every
performance back-to-back.
:: Last year, the Fringe sold 1,338,550 tickets - the third time and
third consecutive year that the Fringe sailed past the million-ticket
barrier.
:: The Fringe sells 97% more tickets than it did only 10 years ago
(679,147 in 1995, 1,338,550 in 2005).

Year Ticket sales
1996 734,508
1997 776,560
1998 814,354
1999 860,357
2000 735,196
2001 873,887
2002 975,110
2003 1,184,738
2004 1,251,997
2005 1,338,550

:: For more information contact Leroy or Louise at the Fringe Press
Office on 0131 240 1919 or press@...
Press office contacts for this year are on this page:
http://www.edfringe.com/area.html?r_menu=global&id=34
http://www.edfringe.com/

---

## - Nightnews at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006

:: Nightnews at the Edinburgh Fringe
Nightnews Fringe Recommendations & Awards 2006
http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2006.htm

:: Nightnews Fringe Awards 2005
http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2005.htm

Links as Requested pop-ups at the Front and Events pages at
http://www.nightnews.net

---

End