07/08/2008 03:36:00
The Edinburgh International Book Festival has proven itself popular as ever as tickets rocketed out of the box office, selling out more than 300 shows before the festival's first day this Saturday.
Internet bookings have caused an 8 per cent rise in pre-event ticket sales, according to The Times, and the festival announced a total of £2 million in advance sales with busier box offices than usual.
The festival's director, Catherine Lockerbie, said that a probable cause behind the swell in audience numbers is the Edinburgh Book Festival's determination to keep prices controlled, including for festival closing highlight - an audience with Sir Sean Connery.
She told the newspaper: "One of our key aims is to keep the festival solvent, at the lowest possible ticket price. If I was company-minded, I would have hired a huge hall and charged £50 a ticket for Sean Connery, but that is not our ethos. Instead it is intimate venue at £9 for each seat. It's a point of principal, but I am effortlessly denying us income."
The low prices certainly helped to ensure an increase of a third in internet sales, with many shows experiencing a demand that far exceeded supply and selling out promptly.
This year, the Edinburgh Book Festival will be reaching out across the world to a similar event in Melbourne. Both events will exchange video links, Edinburgh beaming across Sir Salman Rushdie in return for Melbourne sending new author Nam Le to the benefit of both festivals.
Guests to the popular festival, held in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square, include London-born Hanif Kureishi, Glasgow writer James Kelman, Dundee-born A. L. Kennedy, Edinburgh's Irvine Welsh and journalist, author and critic Tony Parsons.
The Edinburgh Book Festival is kicking off a week after the start of the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe and serves as part of the Scottish capital's busy month of festivities.