Edmonton’s annual performing arts free-for-all closed Sunday after setting a new attendance record.
Organizers of the 45th Edmonton International Fringe Festival reported that 825,000 people visited the festival sites in and around Old Strathcona.
Ticket sales for the 209 indoor productions reached 142,000, with records of 550 sold-out shows, 24 sold-out runs and $1.53 million returned to artists, the festival said in a Sunday media release.
The 11-day event is North America’s largest and longest-running fringe festival, with organizers estimating it would generate more than $20 million in local economic impact.
“We hear from our Fringe hospitality neighbours that Fringe is the best 11 days of the year,” Executive director Megan Dart said Sunday. “The site has been busy but so, too, have the local businesses.”
Eleven shows are being held over into the coming week at two theatres in the heart of the south-side Fringe site, just north of Whyte Avenue between Gateway Boulevard and Calgary Trail.
Two of them—The Butter Chicken Odyssey and Bean Stalk Market Crash—are already sold out.
Last year the festival set an all-time box-office mark with 138,500 tickets sold, along with 490 sold-out performances, 14 sold-out runs and $1.47 million paid to artists.
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