The sector – covering contemporary music, opera, classical, musical theatre, theatre, comedy and dance – sold 18.54 million in total, according to the annual Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey 2014. Contemporary music remains the largest sector with 6.3 million tickets, following musical theatre at 3.1 million and theatre at 1.5 million.
Victoria had the biggest spend per capita ($77.71), and represented 29.8% of national revenue ($450 million) and 28.7% of national attendance (5.32 million). NSW as the larger state represented 36.3% of revenue ($547.1 million) and 33.1% of attendance (6.13 million). NSW’s growth was driven mostly by a growth in musical theatre, with successful runs as The Lion King and Strictly Ballroom in Sydney. Overall, NSW and Victoria had combined revenue of $997.21 million and continued to account for approximately two-thirds of the entire Australian Live Performance Industry.
2014 was not a good year for Victoria, with declines in revenue, attendance and industry share. It had significant declines in contemporary music (mostly due to Pink’s absence after 18 shows in Melbourne in 2013), circus and physical theatre.
LPA’s chief executive Evelyn Richardson said, “The value of the live performance industry to millions of Australians is evident in the continual growth in both revenue and attendance figures. Despite a drop in the average ticket price and lower consumer confidence, total revenue from ticket sales increased by 2% and attendance grew by 3.4% in 2014.
“The live performance industry continues to outperform other strong market sectors, including retail trade, and accommodation and food services and more people attend live performances annually than they do sporting events.”
As with previous years, contemporary music and musical theatre were the two largest contributors to the industry, generating 40.1% and 21.2% of revenue respectively, and a combined attendance rate of 51.6%.
Making s significant gain in revenue were Festivals (Multi-Category), which LPA attributed to the inclusion for the first time of new data from the three Falls Festivals and Tasmania’s MONA FOMA and Dark Mofo.
