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First half ticket sales at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown have grown across both the main and fringe festivals.
However, festival CEO, Tony Lankester, cautioned against predicting similar levels of growth for the whole event.
"Our first-half figures show that, compared to the same period last year, the number of tickets sold has grown by around 11.8% across both the Main and Fringe," he said.
"There are a number of big shows still to come which sold out on pre-sales. Those sales are counted in the first weekend's figures, even though the tickets will only be used later on in the Festival," he said.
The Festival attributes the influx over the first weekend to the unexpectedly warm weather, which saw an increase in day visitors from Port Elizabeth, East London and other parts of the Eastern Cape.
Traders on the Transnet Village Green reported strong sales for the period. "Even the first Monday - typically our quietest day - saw the town and Green packed with festival-goers," Lankester said.
Forecasts are that the warm weather is set to continue for the rest of the Festival, which ends with a '50% Fringe' day on Sunday 8 July, with all Fringe tickets being sold at half of the full price.
"There is some rain predicted for Saturday, so we encourage audiences to get themselves booked in to theatres on that day, and to get their shop ing on the Village Green done before then," Lankester said.
