Adelaide Festival 2017: Sellout shows result in $4m box office record
SOLD-OUT attractions including Saul and The Secret River helped push this years’ Adelaide Festival box office takings to more than $4 million — the highest result in the event’s 57-year-history.
SOLD-OUT attractions including Saul and The Secret River helped push this years’ Adelaide Festival box office takings to more than $4 million — the highest result in the event’s 57-year-history.
Artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy’s debut program included 180 sellout performances and 10 completely sold out seasons, including Canadian dance-theatre sensation Betroffenheit, Lynette Wallworth’s film Coral: Rekindling Venus, Writers’ Week event The Drunken Botanist and the Long Lunches series.
The $4.08 million result was up by 44 per cent and more than $1.2 million on last year, and is almost 25 per cent larger than the previous box office record of $3.1 million set in 1992.
“Being artistic directors of this magnificent festival is a great privilege and we have been overwhelmed by the local, national and international response to our inaugural program,’’ Mr Armfield and Ms Healy said.
“This festival’s success derives from the brilliance of the artists on our stages, (and) the willingness of our audiences to trust our vision.”
Ticketed Festival attendances were up by 8.6 per cent on last year, with audiences of more than 86,400 across 41 ticketed events, compared to 79,500 in 2016.
That puts the increase on par with the Adelaide Fringe’s result, announced on Saturday, which was up 8.5 per cent on 2016 with a total 655,541 tickets sold, worth $16.2 million.
Attendances across free Festival events were also up this year, with audiences of more than 198,000 taking in exhibitions at the Art Gallery and Samstag Museum, as well as the daily program on board the Riverbank Palais and the surrounding Parc Palais, including a near-capacity crowd of 14,900 for the opening weekend Neil Finn concert.
The results include a record of more than 134,000 combined attendances at Writers’ Week in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens at 102 free sessions over six days.
Free and ticketed attendances totalled more than 284,400 across all Festival events, a seven per cent increase on last year.
The Festival box office figures do not include umbrella event Womadelaide, which achieved just under 90,000 attendances over its four days.
Festival chair Judy Potter said that the box office result was a direct reflection of the program decisions made by Armfield and Healy, who will also direct the 2018 and 2019 events.
“Not only has this year’s Festival broken all box office records, but the overwhelmingly positive critical reception and increased attendances — especially from interstate and overseas visitors — show it has also been one of the most popular,’’ Ms Potter said.