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Despite reduced venue capacity and other challenges posed by COVID-19, she 2021 Adelaide Festival sold almost 61,000 tickets and achieved a box office income of more than $3.7 million as of last Friday - prior to its final weekend of performances,

The 2021 edition of the Festival, which ran from Friday 26th February to Sunday 14th March comprised 70 events and, while including few international artists or shows due to the pandemic, it did feature a record 14 Australian premieres and 18 events exclusive to Adelaide.

Results announced as of last Friday morning show that the Festival has already surpassed its box office target of $2.77 million, with 60,958 tickets sold so far, despite the impact of border closures and venues operating at only 50 to 75% of their usual capacity.

At the same time last year the Festival had sold 81,446 tickets across 73 events to achieve total box office income in excess of $5.3 million (all figures exclude WOMADelaide).

Adelaide Festival Executive Director Elaine Chia said the 2021 Festival had required a leap of faith by everyone involved, including artists, arts companies, sponsors and ticket buyers.

Chia told InDaily “not only have we surpassed our box office target in the most trying of times, but attendance across the festival was incredible, our interstate visitors remained steadfast and responses from audiences have been phenomenal.”

Sold-out 2021 shows include Gravity & Other Myths’ acrobatic spectacular The Pulse, performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre over eight sessions with the 30-strong Aurora choir; film premiere My Name is Gulpilil; Restless Dance Theatre’s Guttered; Slingsby and State Theatre Company SA co-production The Boy Who Talked to Dogs, First Nations food series Ngarku’adlu, and many of the chamber music experiences at UKARIA Cultural Centre.

The highest-selling shows were the centrepiece opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Pulse, solo theatre performance A German Life, musical Fangirls and Sydney Dance Company’s Impermanence (performed with the Australian String Quartet). Free installation The Plastic Bag Store, by New York City artist Robin Frohardt, attracted more than 12,000 people across the Festival.

Image courtesy of Tourism South Australia.

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