The Edinburgh International Festival has enjoyed a record year at the box office, organisers said yesterday.
The festival was due to draw to a spectacular end last night with a massive fireworks display over the city. The final sum at the box office is estimated to be £2.63m.
Festival director Jonathan Mills said: "So many people have drawn together to put on a fantastic festival.
"I would like to thank our funders, our sponsors and supporters, the audiences, the staff and of course the artists for giving us a tremendous three weeks of performances." The sales increase, estimated at a 7% rise on last year, has been put down in part to the widespread popularity of the dance programme.
Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray became the biggest-selling dance event in the festival's history, with the sell-out show being seen by more than 13,000 people.
One in three events at the festival sold out.
A spokesman for the festival said audiences for talks and conversations also "significantly" increased this year, "signifying an increasing engagement with artists and the ideas behind the festival programme".
International bookings for this year's festival were up 3% on 2007, including people coming from all corners of the world, with a significant increase of bookers from the eastern fringes of Europe.
This year, world events lent powerful resonance to the programme's central theme of Artists without Borders.
Prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili and her company the State Ballet of Georgia "danced for their country" as troubles continued to escalate in South Ossetia.
A week later, Valery Gergiev took a break from his residency at the Edinburgh International Festival to travel to South Ossetia to conduct a concert in the shelled capital, Tskhinvali.
Last week, the Festival Fringe announced a 10% drop in sales, with problems in a new computerised ticketing system partly to blame for the fall.
Two days later, Fringe director Jon Morgan announced his resignation.
More than 100,000 fireworks were due to explode over the Scottish capital last night to the strains of live orchestral music to bring the curtain down on the festival.
The 45-minute display has attracted in excess of 250,000 spectators in previous years, watching from vantage points across the city. This year, organisers have used more than four tonnes of explosives and come up with hundreds of firing sequences, including the famous waterfall cascading from Edinburgh Castle.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra were to perform a selection of European folk music, conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu.
Two large screens were expected to be set up in Princes Street Gardens for spectators to watch the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, which was due to begin at 9pm. Mr Mills said the display would be a "spectacular way to celebrate the end of the festival season".
"There is a fantastic atmosphere in Princes Street Gardens and across the city, where crowds gather to watch the display," he said.
Mr Mills added: "I hope people have enjoyed the journey we have been on together and I of course extend the invitation now to join us again in 2009.
"The festival programme will be unveiled in March 2009 - and I think you'll like it."
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