Theatre lovers in South Australia are gearing up for one of the busiest times of the year, ahead of Australia’s largest arts festival, Adelaide Fringe. But smaller theatres across the state say they’re struggling as more people grapple with cost-of-living pressures.
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00:00It's the busiest month of the year for Martha Lott.
00:06Her theatre is welcoming audiences for the Adelaide Fringe, but when the festival is
00:12over, filling seats isn't as easy.
00:15We deliberately put our ticket prices down in a small venue like this.
00:21We're not making money.
00:22Holden Street Theatres was forced to drop their ticket prices last year as cost of living
00:28pressures saw audiences dwindle.
00:30The cost of everything goes up and it's a big risk for artists to put on a show.
00:36Quite often they're working for nothing.
00:38A trend which is being felt across theatres in regional South Australia, with a 12% drop
00:44in audiences over the past 12 months.
00:47Unfortunately some cancellations across the year, just because there hasn't been enough
00:51of a ticket purchase ahead of time for that promoter to kind of feel confident.
00:57Last month, Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen was forced to cancel its Adelaide and Canberra
01:02shows due to lagging ticket sales.
01:05Disappointing but not surprising, certainly speaking to our members and artists here in
01:10South Australia, they're struggling to get their shows up and running.
01:16The state's peak body for artists says several independent venues have recently been forced
01:21to close their doors.
01:23The cost of running a venue is extremely high and obviously they're feeling the impact of
01:29the cost of living crisis and the fact that everything supplies electricity, everything
01:33is more expensive.
01:34But for organisers of Australia's largest arts festival, sales are anything but sluggish.
01:42Ticket sales are up 15% compared to this time last year.
01:46It looks like we're on track to sell a million tickets again and that is the third year in
01:52a row.
01:53It will be pretty incredible.
01:54Success they put down to affordable ticket prices and marketing.
01:59Promising news amid troubling times.