Fringe Theatre Awards Launches Ticket Boost Initiative

Fringe Theatre Awards has launched a new "Ticket Boost" initiative for producers and venues. The FTA is helping audiences discover fringe theatre allowing producers to keep ticket sales within their own box office systems.

The Fringe Theatre Awards stated: "We know that some performances can struggle to find an audience. This can be disappointing for casts, creatives and producers, and may create pressure to fill seats at any cost.:

One option is to give tickets away to a papering service. But even when the public pays only an admin fee, that fee goes to the papering organisation, not the producer. That means the producer misses out on potential income. It can also be difficult for a fringe production to stand out when it is featured in the same email as West End shows promoted by a papering company.

What if producers and venues could keep those admin fees themselves while offering audiences discounted tickets?

The FTA has launched Ticket Boost to help make that possible.

The FTA Ticket Boost table would bring discounted fringe theatre tickets together in one place, viz, the FTA website. Each listing could include the show's name, the discount, a promotional code and a direct link to the production's own box office.

Producers and venues would control how many tickets are available, which price bands and performances are included, and what discounts are offered. Audiences would have one simple place to discover affordable theatre, while purchases would be made through each production's own box office system. 

Producers would retain control of the sale and their relationship with their customers.

For Ticket Boost to offer a compelling alternative to established papering sites, the available tickets and discounts would need to be comparable to, or better than, those sites.

Ticket Boost is not a free-ticket or ticket-giveaway scheme. All tickets are sold at a discounted price set by the producer and/or venue. The audience pays for each ticket through the production's existing box office system, with the ticket revenue going to the producer and/or venue in accordance with their existing box office arrangements. The FTA does not take commission on ticket sales; the only FTA charge is the one-off £5 listing fee.

The aim is to benefit producers, audiences and the wider fringe community: giving productions another route to visibility, helping audiences discover affordable theatre, and keeping ticket sales within each production's own box office.