Celtic Connections pull in £1m – again

Published on Friday 30 January 2009 23:56

TICKET sales at Glasgow's biggest musical festival have broken through the £1 million mark for the second year in a row and are on track to at least match last year's record- breaking takings.

Organisers of Celtic Connections have dismissed fears the event would be hit by the economic downturn by revealing a string of sold-out shows have helped make the 16th annual festival a huge success.

Last year's festival saw 1 million in ticket sales achieved for the first time.

With Celtic Connections continuing until Sunday, artistic director Donald Shaw yesterday revealed that landmark had already been reached.

Among this weekend's sell-outs are the two Transatlantic Sessions shows at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Previous sell-outs have included Nanci Griffith, The Wilders, Eddi Reader and the Auld Lang Syne gala to mark the 250th birthday of Robert Burns. This year's festival received a huge boost when its middle weekend was used to help kickstart Scotland's Year of Homecoming and there has been much greater coverage of events on television and radio.

Mr Shaw said: "We're definitely on a par with last year's ticket sales at this stage and have passed the 1 million mark.

"Ticket sales were a bit of a worry this year because of the situation with the economy, but I think part of the festival's success is that people have been looking for a bit of escapism."

He added: "We've also been careful not to price tickets too high and have worked hard to programme some pretty amazing concerts."

Last year's Celtic Connections was found to be worth almost 8 million to the economy.