Edinburgh Festival opens to half-empty hall

Opening night review from Hugh Kerr:

… This was the opening concert of the Edinburgh Festival. Normally on a Saturday morning it would have been a very full hall, yet the Queens Hall was a little over half full. We were not short of warnings to Fergus Linehan, the festival director, that raising concert prices and stopping the discounts for most pensioners would adversely impact on attendance figures. It’s not just for the opening concert but the story is that there are very few sold-out concerts during the festival and even the operas have lots of seats available. Fergus has claimed that Edinburgh is cheaper than many European festivals, which is true but that’s because they are often very expensive. Edinburgh is in danger of becoming a similarly elite festival for the better off, in comparison with for instance the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden where you can get upper slips tickets for £10. This compares with £32 for the cheapest upper circle seat for ‘Russalka’ at Edinburgh. …

Read on here.