Dublin Theatre Festival slips back into the red

THE DUBLIN Theatre Festival slipped back into the red last year, as income from ticket sales dipped 15 per cent to €539,370, according to accounts just filed at the companies office.

Despite the fall-off in sales, income remained relatively steady during the year at €2.33 million as the festival derives its income from a combination of State funding, sponsorship, ticket sales and ancillary revenue.

Expenditure increased 6 per cent last year to €2.43 million, however, pushing the festival into deficit, with the company carrying a cumulative shortfall of €97,353 at the end of the year.

The directors are “committed to addressing and reducing this deficit significantly in 2012 and subsequent years”, the accounts state.

The Arts Council continued to be the company’s main source of funding, providing a grant of €735,000, in line with the previous year. Ticket sales came in at €539,370 last year, compared to €631,307 in 2010, while sponsorship was also slightly lower at €575,162, compared to €662,627 in 2010.

The festival’s main sponsors included Ulster Bank, the Dublin Airport Authority, and the Doyle Collection hotel group, though 2011 was Ulster Bank’s last year as title sponsor.

The Dublin Theatre Festival employed 27 people during the year, including 21 festival employees.

This year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, which is now in its 55th year, runs from September 27th to October 14th at a number of locations around Dublin.

Highlights of the 2012 festival, which is under the stewardship of newly appointed artistic director Willie White, include a new adaptation of James Joyce’s Dubliners and the only Dublin dates for the Druid theatre company’s critically acclaimed cycle of three Tom Murphy plays, DruidMurphy.