Adelaide Fringe battle underway between dominant large venues and smaller upstarts

There is a David and Goliath battle that takes place on the streets of Adelaide every year during the Fringe festival — the battle between smaller and bigger venues to sell tickets. Key points: The two largest venues at the Adelaide Fringe dominate ticket sales Other venue operators and artists using them can struggle Sales overall are up compared with the last pre-COVID festival in 2020 Despite sluggish ticket sales for her comedy and variety shows, producer Annie Schofield said she would not have it any other way. So far this year, 221,000 tickets for Adelaide Fringe shows have been sold out of a goal of 1 million sales — up 12 per cent compared with the last pre-COVID festival in 2020. Struggle for smaller venues Veteran arts administrator Anne Wiberg runs The Lab in Light Square, a Fringe venue that is back for its second year but has only sold about 20 per cent of its tickets so far. "A lot of the general public actually believe that once they've been to the Garden or Gluttony, they've been to the Fringe," Ms Wiberg said.