Festival ticket sales boom? It's all show

• Comedian Lewis Schaffer appeared at the Laughing Horse - estimated attendances from free shows at the venue were used to boost Festival box office figures Picture: Jane Barlow

The Scotsman can reveal that a rough estimate of the number of people attending hundreds of free, unticketed productions in bars and nightclubs have been included in official ticket sales data for the last two years.

An extra 120,000 sales have been added to the final total this year and last based on average audiences attending shows staged by Laughing Horse, one of two major promoters running strands of free shows.

The move means the record ticket sales attributed to the Fringe in 2009 and 2010 have been nowhere near as impressive as thought.

The Fringe's decision to include a figure based on Laughing Horse's shows has been disowned by its main promoter, Alex Petty, who admitted he had "no idea" how many people actually attended.

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The Fringe has also excluded Laughing Horse's rival promoter, Peter Buckley Hill, who staged more than 200 different shows at other venues.

The Fringe's annual report claims 1,859,235 tickets were "sold" during last year's event, while a news release heralding the success of this year's Fringe said an estimated 1,955,913 tickets had been "sold" by Monday, the final day of the Festival.

But according to new figures released by the Fringe last night the sales figures were 1,739,235 and 1,829,931 respectively.

Last year the Fringe trumpeted that it had broken the previous box office record, set in 2007, by nine per cent, when the real figure was actually 2.47 per cent.

The claimed 21 per cent rise on 2008, when the Fringe box office was dogged by technical problems, was actually only 13 per cent once the free shows are removed from the totals.

The Fringe has never admitted including estimates of attendances at free unticketed shows. But mid-way through the 2009 Fringe, chief executive Kath Mainland said it would be "helpful" for the Fringe to find out how many people were flocking to free shows.

Fringe spokesman Neil Mackinnon defended the decision to include an estimate of attendance at free shows, insisting they had become an "integral part of the Festival".

He added: "The venues have a good idea of how many people are attending shows because of health and safety and fire regulations, and Laughing Horse have given us estimates for the last two years.

"We asked Peter Buckley Hill to provide the same estimates but he has refused and that is why his shows are not included. We did say in our announcement on Monday that the box office figure was an estimate. I don't think we are misleading people at all." Steve Cardownie, Edinburgh City Council's festivals and events champion, said: "The Fringe should probably have differentiated between the free shows and actual ticket sales."

Mr Petty, whose performers included Lewis Schaffer, Imran Yusuf and Tricity Vogue and Sarah Louise Young, said: "I'm not happy about this at all. I was asked to provide an average attendance per show and worked out an overall figure based on the number of performances.

"The Fringe should make it clear what its ticket sales are and then add a separate figure for the estimated number of people who attend free shows. It leaves them open to claims of trying to massage box office figures."

Mr Buckley Hill said: "If we have absolutely no idea how many people attended our shows, how can any other body have any such idea?"