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National Arts Festival produces satisfying attendance figures


The 2013 edition of the National Arts Festival produced satisfying attendance figures.

Festival CEO, Tony Lankester, says overall attendance was at 211701, a marginal 7000 decrease over the 2012 figure which was an all-time record audience for the Festival.

He says the Rand value of tickets sold increased marginally, by 1.56%.

Lankester says this figure excludes "donations" received by approximately 108 productions which made up the "Free Fringe".

He says they're already calling for innovative and groundbreaking proposals for the Festival's 2014 Main programme.

" 2014 will be the confluence of several big anniversaries for us. Its the 40th anniversary of the festival, It's the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa and the 30th year that Standard Bank have been on board with the arts festival. So I think we going to come up with something really big next year, where those three aspects collide. I think we going to have a very special programme in store." says Lankester

“Over a 5-year rolling average we have seen audience growth of around 20% since 2009. This is a healthy trajectory for the arts and for the economics of arts,” Lankester said.

“Annual spikes and drops in audience would be worrying – organic, steady growth over time is a lot more reassuring and sustainable.”