Photos: 250,000 People Flock to West End Live

Amid the distractions of the World Cup and now Wimbledon, the West End received a welcome boost over the weekend as 250,000 people flocked to West End Live in Leicester Square.

The event – the largest free theatre festival in the world – is expected to give theatre a £2million boost in ticket sales, and Whatsonstage.com was again on board as media partner.

West End Live, which is organised by Westminster Council and is now in its sixth year, proved so popular some visitors started queuing at 4am on Saturday morning to ensure they got the best spot to watch performances from the likes of Sheridan Smith, Patina Miller and Hannah Waddingham.

Nica Burns, President of the Society of London Theatre, said: “London has the best theatre in the world and West End Live is a fantastic opportunity for people to sample some of the West End’s most popular shows for free.”

Shows taking part this year included: Sweet Charity, Billy Elliot, Wicked, Hair, Chicago, Love Never Dies, Avenue Q, Sister Act, Into the Woods , Burn the Floor, Tap Dogs, Grease, Mamma Mia!, Stomp, Dirty Dancing, All the Fun of the Fair, Thriller Live, The Fantasticks and We Will Rock You. 

Selected day one pictures are below – more to follow…

As part of our special West End Live promotions, Whatsonstage.com ran a competition to win £5,000 worth of Radisson Edwardian hotel breaks (the winner will be picked on 25 June) and offered visitors a £15 discount on annual membership to the Whatsonstage.com Theatre Club.

And it’s not too late to tweet about your own West End Live experiences using the #woswelive hashtag – that way your tweets will not only display on Twitter but also here on Whatsonstage.com on our dedicated microsite at www.whatsonstage.com/welive.