AusLeisure

Live Performance Australia (LPA) reports that the live performance industry continued to drive Australia’s cultural economy in 2018 with more than 26 million attendances generating almost $2.2 billion in ticket revenue.

Revenue increased by 14.8% on the previous year with growth in all states and territories except the Northern Territory. Attendances also increased by 14.1% on the previous year.

Evelyn Richardson, Chief Executive of LPA noted “These are solid results, but the rate of growth year on year is slowing compared to previous years, underscoring the need for a positive policy framework from the federal, state and territory governments which support live performance.”

Total revenues and attendance had grown by 32% and 23% respectively in the previous year (2017).

Growth in 2018 was driven largely by contemporary music which accounted for slightly over half of total revenue for live performance in at $1.09 billion. This was a 32% increase on the previous year and accounted for 38.4% of attendances (over 10 million).

Musical theatre was the next biggest category, contributing $400 million in revenue which was 18.5% of the industry total, and 3.9 million attendances which was 14.9% of the industry total.

Musical theatre revenue was down by 4% and attendances dropped by 3.1%.

The next best performing categories by revenue were comedy, music festivals, classical music, theatre, multi-category festivals, ballet and dance, children’s/family, opera, circus and physical theatre, and special events.

Richardson advised the live performance industry made a significant contribution to national and regional economies, but governments needed to pay closer attention to policy settings, investment levels and infrastructure required to support growth across all genres.

“In particular, we’ve recently seen a period of uncertainty in NSW – our largest market for live performance – due to the State Government’s approach to music festival regulations and a lack of strategy around theatre venues for Sydney.

“NSW is our largest live performance market in Australia, and we need it to perform well for the health of the industry overall.

“While total revenue increased in NSW by 22% and attendances were up by 19%, for 2018, Queensland recorded a 20% increase in both revenues and attendance for the same period.”

NSW’s growth was largely driven by increases in the Special Events, Festivals (Multi-Category) and Theatre categories. Queensland’s significant growth was supported by live performance events associated with the Commonwealth Games. 

Tasmania also enjoyed exceptional results, largely due to its range of world class multi-arts festivals; it experienced the highest year-on-year growth in attendance (67%) and a 17% increase in revenue.

Victorians value their live performance experience by spending the most on tickets, at an average of $107.08 per person compared with the national average of $99.03. Victoria was the second largest contributor in revenue (32.3%) and attendance (30.5%) and, for the first time, outperformed NSW in contemporary music, generating the largest market share in revenue (37.3%) and attendance (33.2%).

Combined NSW and Victoria generated approximately 67% of all revenue and 62% of attendance in 2018.

Produced annually since 2004, the Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report is the most comprehensive and reliable survey of ticket sales and attendance for Australian live performance events.

The 2018 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report can be accessed at http://reports.liveperformance.com.au/ticket-survey-2018

Related Articles

25th September 2019 - Live Performance Australia advises that collaboration is key to safer music festivals

19th July 2019 - Live Performance Australia applauds Google decision to ban Viagogo

15th July 2019 - 23 live performance winners honoured at completion of 2019 Helpmann Awards

11th May 2019 - LPA welcomes Labor vision for creative Australia

14th February 2019 - LPA calls on NSW Premier to halt new regulations until proper industry consultation undertaken

30th November 2018 - LPA welcomes Labor Plans on Ticketing and Music

26th October 2018 - Victoria generates Australia’s highest live performance revenues and attendances

19th March 2018 - LPA launches video to help online ticket buyers avoid scams

20th February 2018 - LPA releases new Safety Guidelines for the Live Entertainment and Events Industries

16th November 2017 - Live Performance Australia passes 100 year operational landmark

8th August 2017 - LPA releases guide to help consumers avoid ticketing scams

24th October 2011 - LPA issues public warning over online ticket scalpers

3rd August 2010 - LPA announce 2010 Helpmann Awards nominations

17th June 2010 - LPA: ‘Live Entertainment and Performing Arts Contributes $1.1 billion to the Australian Economy’

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.