Biggest performer in WA is FRINGE WORLD

FRINGE WORLD’s Impact Report for the 2017 Festival reveals the massive success of the event, which is the biggest box office earner of any arts event in Western Australia.

Perth’s most popular annual event has maintained its title as the third largest Fringe festival in the world, delivering over $8.6 million in payments to participating artists.

The 2017 Festival featured 711 events at 147 venues and achieved close to 360,000 attendances at ticketed events and total free and ticketed attendance of more than 750,000, crossing the magic $10 million mark for overall box office sales for the first time. More than 7,100 people completed surveys that informed the report’s primary statistics.

Hon. David Alan Templeman MLA Minister for Culture and the Arts launched the Impact Report and said that the the Festival continued to deliver positive benefits for WA including its artists, local businesses and the wider community.

“FRINGE WORLD offers entertainment for absolutely everyone as well as enduring benefits for the WA community. The 2017 Festival showcased the talents of three and a half thousand participating artists and it’s particularly fantastic that almost seventy percent them were local homegrown heroes from this state,” Mr. Templeman said.

Visitor’s to FRINGE WORLD spent over $60.6 million dollars during the Festival and the total flow on economic impact was $84.3 million, equating to 1,857 FTE jobs. For every $1 invested by the WA state government, $77 was returned to the local economy.

FRINGE WORLD 2017 achieved an average session sold capacity of 63% across close to 5,000 individual performances in the Festival, an increase of almost 10% from the previous year.

FRINGE WORLD Chief Executive Marcus Canning, who was recently awarded the 2017 Western Australian of the Year – Arts & Culture Award, said that in addition to the financial returns, the Festival delivers a range of long-term benefits in other areas.

“FRINGE WORLD has shifted the way that people engage with the city each summer and has been a game-changer in the way culture is consumed in Perth.” Mr Canning said. “We’re thrilled that our Festival continues to deliver huge value to the WA community and has such positive impact across social, cultural and economic spheres. We’re particularly happy with the positive role the Fringe plays for local creatives.”

Audiences were asked more than 50 questions and some of the highlights revealed in the 2017 FRINGE WORLD Impact Report include:

• 69% of the surveyed audience indicate that FRINGE WORLD had contributed to them feeling safer in Northbridge and Perth city centre.
• 96% agree that the Fringe made the city a more vibrant place.
• 89% believe that Fringe is an event that brings the whole community together.
• 93% believe Fringe enables them to see high quality performances they would otherwise not see.
• 76% believe FRINGE WORLD is one of the top five best things about Perth.
• 92% believe that their visit to FRINGE WORLD has made it more likely that they will attend more arts events in the future.
• 98% of audiences plan to attend Fringe again next year.

Click here to read the Impact Report.

The 2018 FRINGE WORLD Festival will be held from 27 January to 25 February.

The open-access Festival will open for event and venue registrations in July. More information is at fringeworld.com.au

ENDS

For all FRINGE WORLD Festival media enquiries, please contact:

Jo Hos,
FRINGE WORLD Marketing Director
(08) 9227 6288 ext. 111 | Mobile: 0430 552 962
jo@artrage.com.au

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