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EIF Goes Out With a Bang & Record Box Office Takings

This year's Edinburgh International Festival has drawn to a close, finishing in its usual spectacular fashion with the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert and the announcement of that box office takings are up 3% on 2009 figures to a record breaking £2.67m.

The EIF sold a total of 135,793 tickets, a smaller increase of 1% on last year, to performances - a third of which were complete sellouts. Almost 50% of the ticket buyers were from Edinburgh's EH postcodes, supporting 700 Scottish artists who took part in the Festival. This compares to 2,300 international artists and audience members from 73 countries who bought tickets to the August festivities.

Scottish Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop, speaking about the success of this year's EIF, said: "Edinburgh is well known as the festival capital of the world and the record-breaking success of this year's Edinburgh International Festival can only strengthen Scotland's global reputation as a place of cultural and creative excellence."

Building on the Edinburgh International Festival’s 2010 theme of 'new worlds', this year's Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, which was held on 5 September 2010, featured music from European émigrés or first generation Americans composers Erich Korngold, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. The concert, which combines music from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with timed firework detentions from Edinburgh castle, was watched by an estimated 250,000 spectators around the city.

Speaking at the close of this year's EIF, festival director Jonathan Mills said: "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. 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."

- by Andrew Girvan

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