Record Festival ends on note of Bliss

Published on Sunday 5 September 2010 16:05

THE Edinburgh International Festival drew to a spectacular close this weekend with record-breaking ticket sales, sell-out classical audiences in the Usher Hall and Queen's Hall, and rave reviews for the challenging closing opera, Bliss.

• Bliss, from Opera Australia, was described as a contemporary tour de force in a rare show of unity

The Festival claimed the highest ticket sales income in its 62-year history, with more than 2.67 million taken at the box office. The figure is about 3 per cent more than last year's total of 2.58 million, but only fractionally above the 2008 figure, of 2.63 million.

Audiences included people from 73 countries, Festival organisers said yesterday, stressing its international flavour. It brought 2,300 performers from Mexico, Australia and across the world, frequently with high-placed diplomatic delegations in tow from governments that helped to fund their performances in Edinburgh.

"We've had a successful year financially, which is fantastic, but what is more important, I believe, is that we have more than measured up to our name," said director Jonathan Mills.

"We have helped to transform Edinburgh, bringing the vibrant, vital cultures of the New World to its residents' doorsteps, and we have showcased this wonderful city to the world."

It strengthened international bridges to Edinburgh ahead of the London Olympics and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, he said.

The 2010 Festival, themed around exploring the cultures of New World and Old and reaching across the oceans, delivered an eclectic mix that ranged from the live performance and film from Chilean company Teatro Cinema, to classical performances like Mahler's Symphony No 8, the sell-out final concert at the Usher Hall.

It finished on a high note - but had its share of low ones. Critics savaged the opening opera, Montezuma, a European and Mexican co-production, as a dismal affair. The National Theatre of Scotland's major Festival play, Caledonia, the story of the disastrous Scottish colony in Panama, was a controversial outing that may do little to settle concern about the company's current direction after its writer skipped the opening night.

Reviewers, however, sang the praises of Bliss, from Opera Australia, based on the novel by Peter Carey.Bliss saw a late surge of ticket sales for its final performance on Saturday after a string of four-star and five-star reviews described it as a contemporary tour de force.

The orchestral line-up and the early music concerts in Greyfriars Kirk, championed by Mr Mills, earned strong reviews. Other highlights included the memorial concert for conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, featuring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where he began his professional career. Several are still to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, from the opening concert, El Nio, to the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra's appearance.

The Festival, founded in 1947, issued detailed sales figures yesterday. The EIF issued 140,680 tickets this year, and sold 135,793, a slight increase on last year. The number of issued tickets includes those for guests, staff, ticket giveaways and competitions.

In 2009, the EIF issued 147,926 tickets and sold 134,444. There were an additional five previews last year and a summer school at the Festival, which accounted for the larger difference between issued and sold.

Nearly one in three events was a sell-out, with 80 per cent of tickets sold and a rise across the board in discount ticket sales.

Sell-outs ranged from performances of Caledonia to the new production of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, to the opera Porgy and Bess, and concerts by Steven Osborne or the Simn Bolvar String Quartet. The Gospel at Colonus, at the Edinburgh Playhouse, was seen by more than 9,000 people.

Almost 50 per cent of buyers came from Edinburgh postcodes, but a record number of diplomats and cultural delegations came from Mexico, Finland, Australia, Korea, Abu Dhabi, Netherlands, Slovenia, India, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, China, Chile, Singapore, Italy, South Africa, Indonesia and Switzerland.

Steve Cardownie, festivals and events champion for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: "This year's ticket sales and attendance data are fantastic, especially the high turnout by Edinburgh residents. This proves that, not only is the International Festival an enormous draw for visitors from all over the world, its exhilarating programmes of music, dance and theatre are extremely popular with home crowds as well."