The ticketing system which powers the iconic Edinburgh
Fringe is poised to change the way South Africans experience the arts from
2014, with the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown being the first to
introduce its audiences to “one of the world’s most efficient, robust,
versatile and secure systems”.
The largest arts gathering in the world The Scottish event sells
over 2.5 million tickets each August. From this year, the same software that
powers those sales will be used in Grahamstown, in terms of a new partnership
announced today between the Festival and Edinburgh-based technology company
Red61.
“This is an amazing, world-class system, unlike anything
we’ve encountered,” Festival CEO Tony Lankester said. “The software was
custom-written specifically to simplify the experience of attending a Festival
such as ours, which has many venues and hundreds of performances taking place
in a concentrated period of time,” he said.
The partnership will save festival-goers valuable time and
effort, while bringing a streamlined and simplified planning and booking
experience to their desktops, smartphones and tablets without compromising on
security, Lankester maintains. “Security was our number one priority. We wanted
to introduce a system which protected the private data of our customers and of
artists. The next thing we looked for in a system was simplicity. Customers
don’t want to spend hours navigating a cumbersome site with archaic rules. This
system will let our audiences plan their Festival visit online and then book
quickly and securely using their phones or tablets, wherever they are. While
this technology itself isn’t new, the way the customer experience is put front
and centre of this software is unlike anything on offer in the South African marketplace.
It is easy, quick, safe, intuitive and is an absolute joy to use.”
Only a couple of years since its introduction, the software
has become the de facto standard for arts events around the world. “We sell
tickets not just in Edinburgh, but also in Adelaide, Brighton, Perth and Abu
Dhabi,” Red61 Managing Director Tony Davey said. “While it was designed and
built for Edinburgh, it is scaleable so that it can handle one production or
venue in one day as easily as it can a multi-venue environment like Edinburgh
which has hundreds of performances on at any given moment throughout August.”
Grahamstown is the first African festival to use the
software, a fact that means a lot to Red61. “One of our early investors and our
current Chairman, William Burdett-Coutts who runs the iconic Assembly venues in
Edinburgh, performed at the inaugural National Arts Festival when he was a
Rhodes student in 1974. The fact that we are introducing Via to Grahamstown 40
years later makes us proud,” Davey said.
Behind the scenes, the software will give organisers and
artists performing at the Festival better access to instant sales figures,
analysis and reports. “We’ll be able to see at a glance which shows are selling
well, which ones aren’t, and we will be able to adjust our marketing on the fly
to respond,” Lankester said. “Importantly, the pricing structure of the system
is such that we will be able to drastically reduce the commissions and fees
built in to every ticket, meaning more money goes into the pockets of the
artists.”
While some of those savings will flow to artists in the
first year, it is expected that the commissions will reduce even further in
future years as the Festival’s initial investment in hardware infrastructure is
recouped.
“We like the system so much we have decided to invest in the
future of the company, and the National Arts Festival will license the software
to festivals, theatres, sports events and concerts across the country through a
new non-profit joint venture with Red61,” Lankester said. The venture will be
launched in South Africa once compliance testing is complete.
Apart from licensing the software, the Festival will be
commissioning South African developers to come up with innovations that add
value to the system – planning tools and web functionality that can then be
offered to Via users in other countries, showcasing South Africa’s IT talent.
“We are convinced that Via is the future of ticketing and will become the
global standard – and we want everyone to experience it knowing full well that
the system speaks for itself,” Lankester said “It makes organisers, artists and
audiences happy the moment they come into contact with it.”
The 40th edition of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
will take place from July 3 to 13, 2014. See www.nationalartsfestival.co.za,
or the National Arts Festival Grahamstown on Facebook, or @artsfestival on
Twitter, for more information.
The National Arts Festival is sponsored by Standard Bank,
The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Eastern Cape Government,
Department of Arts and Culture, National Arts Council, City Press and M Net.
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