Fringe Festival attendance rebounds from last year

View from Fringe office
A view of downtown Minneapolis from the Minnesota Fringe Festival's office on the fifth floor of the Hennepin Center for the Arts, the same building that houses the Illusion Theater.
MPR Photo/Marianne Combs

The Minnesota Fringe Festival appears to have bounced back from last year's low attendance and revenue.

Last year's Fringe Festival opened the day after the I-35W bridge collapse, which had a dramatic effect on ticket sales.

The 2008 Fringe Festival ended Sunday. Fringe executive director Robin Gillette says sales this year rose by eight percent.

The Fringe did great. It looks like based on preliminary numbers, that our box office revenue was $306,000," said Gillette.

Gillette says this year's revenue does not match the $338,000 made in 2006, but she attributes that in part to the smaller number of acts.

Gillette says 2006 and 2907 the company had a lot more performances than we did in 08, so in this year we had 806 performances, whereas in 06 we're going against 867 performances.

But she says average attendance, at just below fifty per show, is almost exactly where it was two years ago.