You can prove anything with statistics, they say. An apt example is the Edinburgh Festival’s crowing this week about the highest ticket sales in the event’s history, an astounding 1.95m tickets this summer.
(Unfortunately, this year none of those tickets were mine, as I didn’t have time to get up there, but I’ll be going again next year. I’ve had such a blast over the last couple of years that I’m disappointed not to have had the time this August to have even just a few days in Edinburgh. It’s a crazy place, and just buzzing 24/7.)
Anyways, what the press release and subsequent media coverage failed to point out, is that whilst ticket sales were up by 5%, the average number of tickets sold per performance had dropped off quite dramatically:
In 2009, ticket sales were 1.85m for 32,000ish performances. That works out as 57.8 tickets sold per performance.
In 2010, ticket sales were 1.95m for 40,000ish performances. That works out as 48.8 tickets sold per performance.
That looks like a fall of just over 15% in average attendance per show, which doesn’t exactly strike me as a blinding success.
The sheer growth in terms of the number of performers and shows is what accounts for the growth in ticket sales as a whole, but each individual performance is actually seeing a reduction in ticket sales, which in turn is making it harder for productions to break even.
Of course, the Edinburgh festival organising committee wants to put a positive spin on things, and it’s just a shame that none of the journalists writing about the festival’s ticket sales have done any simple maths to show that all might not be quite as rosy as is claimed…