Performing arts ticketing revenue falls

More Australians watched live performances across the arts last year than in the previous 12 months, but they spent slightly less money overall on tickets.

The findings, from Live Performance Australia (LPA) 's Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2011 shows attendances shows rose by 0.6% but that revenue declined marginally from $1.32 billion in 2010 to $1.3 billion.

The survey, the eighth from the peak body for Australia's live entertainment and performing arts industry covered all aspects of the arts including music, theatre, dance, comedy and a range of festivals.

LPA Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson explained "this year's Survey confirms that demand for Live Entertainment remained strong in 2011, despite generally difficult economic conditions".

The slight decline in revenue against an increase in attendance is due to a marginal fall in average ticket price (a 0.7% drop, from $86.43 to $85.86), in addition to a slightly larger proportion of complimentary, sponsor and zero-priced tickets.

Overall, the Survey recorded that 17,345,720 tickets for Live Entertainment Industry events were issued in Australia in 2011. While this does not yet match pre-Global Financial Crisis attendance levels, it does represent a healthy improvement on the figures recorded for 2008 and 2009, and continues the upward trend recorded in 2010. This is heartening for the industry, and is indicative of strong ongoing demand.

A major addition to this year's Survey is the provision of a State/Territory breakdown of ticket sales and attendance for each genre. Overall, key trends were the 4.5% decline in Victoria's share of industry revenue compared with 5% growth in New South Wales. The genre breakdowns reveal the impact of single state events such as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Womadelaide and the Sydney season of Richard III.

Richardson adds "the inclusion this year of Melbourne Recital Centre has had a positive impact on the data collected for Opera and Classical Music events while the addition of data from Foxtix has improved the collection rate for the genres of Contemporary Music, and Festivals - Single Category - giving a more comprehensive picture of industry trends, revenue and attendance.

"When compared with 2010, most genre categories experienced positive revenue growth in 2011. The small overall drop can largely be explained by declines in attendance and revenue for Contemporary Music, Festivals - Single Category - and Special Events. While the drop in Special Events attendance and revenue can be explained by the impact of a single event - the Edinburgh Tattoo played Australia in 2010, but not 2011 - the fall in the other two categories is more likely to be reflective of broader economic conditions – notably, declining levels of consumer demand and disposable income."

Although the 2011 revenue figure for Contemporary Music (formerly 'Non-Classical Music') represents an 18.2% decline when compared with 2010, it still remains the second highest revenue figure recorded by LPA Surveys for the genre - and comfortably eclipses the pre-Global Financial Crisis high recorded in 2007.

Here, Richardson addes "it should be noted that 2010 was a particularly exceptional year for Contemporary Music. Tours by major, high-grossing acts such as U2, AC/DC, Bon Jovi and Metallica all contributed to a bumper year."

The genres which experienced the strongest growth in 2011 were Circus and Physical Theatre, Children's/Family Events, and Comedy.

While significant growth in the Circus and Physical Theatre (464.3%) and Children's/Family Events (88.1%) categories can be explained by the impact of single stand-out events (Cirque de Soleil's Saltimbanco tour in the Circus and Physical Theatre category, and Walking With Dinosaurs in the Children's/Family Events category), the 33.2% growth in revenue for Comedy is the result of generally strong demand for the category.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) had a record year in 2011, recording an 11% increase on revenue when compared with 2010.

Richardson concludes "these figures reflect Australians continued appetite for live performance and affirm without doubt the importance of our industry to both Treasury's coffers and the cultural fabric of our nation."

The Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2011 is the most comprehensive survey available of ticket sales for Australian Live Entertainment events.

For more information on LPA go to www.liveperformance.com.au

Image: The exterior of Sydney's City Recital Hall exterior. Courtesy of Alexander Mayes.