Durham Fringe Festival 2024, with its distinctive stretch-tent marquee and mobile box office on Palace Green, has drawn to a close with record visitor numbers and record ticket sales. More than 120 volunteers and 90 different artists and companies took part with 250 performances across eight stages. This included the festival’s first-ever dedicated dance hub in the Fonteyn Ballroom, Dunelm House. Performers travelled from as far afield as the United States and Western Australia to be part of Durham Fringe with several sell-out shows. Close to 7,500 tickets were sold, an increase of 40% over last year’s total sales (which were themselves an increase of 40% over 2022.)
Festival Director, Stephen Cronin, said, “Our fourth Durham Fringe Festival has been a wonderful success and we appreciate the way many people have strived hard to create something extraordinary – we have experienced talented and creative acts and audiences have been wonderfully welcoming of their efforts. Even the weather has been kind to us.
“Our programme was so diverse and wide-ranging, and took in everything from children climbing magic spirals into the air accompanied by a Cheshire cat, to AI projection augmented dance, new musicals, stand up, sketch reviews, magic shows, song and spoken word - the range of talent on show has been amazing. Our improvised music and theatre shows, such as the Improvesarios and London-based Helluva Twist have gone down a storm, effectively providing a new show every night.
“As well as the fantastic reception our acts have received, we are obviously delighted with ticket sales which we worked hard to generate. We are a community-led festival with a commitment to returning as much of ticket sales income to our artists and performers as possible. We aren't measured by numbers. Our aim is to create opportunities for shows to find an audience and for our audience to experience the breadth of the performing arts. Initial verbal and email feedback from our performers, volunteers and audience members has been very positive, and we’ve been described as supportive, friendly and efficient. One performer thought we had been established for at least ten years!
“We will be seeking formal feedback from audience members shortly but, so far, things are looking really good. We’ve also had superb support from businesses in the city and wider County Durham who have either sponsored us or provided offers for our visitors. It’s all helped bring a real buzz to the city and we are very grateful for this support,without which the festival wouldn’t happen.”
The festival team will soon be taking a well-earned rest but will soon be starting plans for Fringe Festival 2025,
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