Ticket sales rose by 36% in 2017 as Buxton Festival Fringe celebrated its biggest year.
The Fringe boasted 189 separate events, with the total audience figure, including estimates for the Fringe’s free events, up by 9% on 2016 to 17,530.
The Fringe consistently contributes more than £300,000 to the local economy—the 2017 figure totalled £316,324 including expenditure from performers during their stay in Buxton plus audiences’ spend on food, accommodation and ticket sales.
Seventeen per cent of people attended the Fringe for the first time while half the respondents had been going to the Fringe for between two and nine years and 23% attending for more than ten years.
Audiences visited Buxton from London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Brighton and Cornwall. There were entrants from as far afield as America.
Fringe chair Keith Savage said, “the Buxton Fringe 2017 welcomed some new venues and performers which meant a degree of risk-taking on their part and it's good to see that boldness pay off. The fact that the Buxton Fringe has the capacity to grow will encourage others to join us in 2018.”
Buxton Fringe 2018 will run from 4 until 22 July. The Fringe web site will open for entries on Friday 1 December.