Fringe bosses insist box office will be just the ticket this year

Published on Wednesday 4 February 2009 08:48

FRINGE bosses today insisted there would be no repeat of last year's box office disaster, as a report highlighting the critical mistakes and failures which led to the problems was made public.

The Fringe Society revealed that Red61, a company with a long history of working with the festival, was already preparing the ticketing system for this year's event.

It will modify an existing system to do the job, after concerns were raised over the time and difficulty of creating a specialised Fringe Box Office. And an earlier computerised system will also be prepared in advance as a back-up.

The news came as an independent report into the box office disaster, published today, revealed significant failures with the 2008 system. Red61 had lost out to last year's supplier Pivotal, despite Pivotal's lack of detailed knowledge of ticketing systems and both firms being independently assessed as "being of high risk of business failure".

The process which finally agreed on Pivotal as the provider of the 2008 system was described in the report as "fundamentally flawed".

The report by independent Edinburgh-based chartered accountants Scott-Moncrieff was ordered last year, after the critical failure of the new Liquid Box Office system cost the Society up to 1 million in lost ticket sales and led to a "reputation loss".

A review revealed that Pivotal had been given just 14 weeks to develop the new system.

A steering committee which was set up to monitor the project met just once, in February last year, before being disbanded in May.

The damning report also identified "inadequate risk management", "inadequate project control", "insufficient independent scrutiny" and a communication breakdown as the problems with the system became apparent.

A statement issued by the Fringe board of directors said many of the recommendations were already well under way for this year's festival.

It read: "These steps are part of a radical process of change in the Fringe – specifically in relation to the staffing structure, the business model and the negotiation of a new box office system.

"The board has recognised the box office difficulties of the past year and learned from the experience. The recommendations contained within this report, combined with the ongoing process of change, will allow the Fringe to greatly enhance the services the festival provides to public and performers alike."

No decision has been made on whether to push ahead with creating a specific box office system designed just for the Fringe.

Councillor Steve Cardownie, council festivals and events champion, said: "The Fringe will come out of this debacle a stronger organisation than before and I'm sure the people involved will do what they can to make sure the Fringe goes from strength to strength."