Dublin Theatre Festival stages successful return to black

The Dublin Theatre Festival last year enjoyed its most successful performance since losing its lead sponsor Ulster Bank in 2011.

The festival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year, cleared a long-standing deficit and retained an operating surplus of €107,626, newly filed accounts show.

Increased attendances led to a 45 per cent jump in ticket sales. Artistic director and chief executive Willie White said pre-sales for this year's festival have been strong.

“It was our best performance in several years. We managed to maintain a clean sheet of accounts as well as run an ambitious festival, so it’s a good-news story,” said Mr White.

Ulster Bank became the title sponsor of the festival in 2007, initially as part of a three-year deal that was extended to five years. Since 2011, the event has been without a lead sponsor. Mr White said that while the festival was open to taking on a new title sponsor it was not reliant on one coming on board.

Steady ship

“We came out of a period where we had a title sponsor that enabled us to be very ambitious from 2007 to 2011. We’ve been trying to maintain a steady ship since then because we’re not ever interested in someone sponsoring us to plug a hole. We want them to sponsor us because we can do new things,” he said.

“Our job is to make sure that no one is propping us up but rather than they are lifting us up to new heights,” Mr White added.

Europe’s oldest specialised theatre festival reported income of €2.02 million last year, as against €1.87 million in 2014. A breakdown of income shows ticket sales rose from €479,782 to €695,330, while sponsorship, including non-cash items, declined from €355,378 to €219,095.

The festival received €799,000 from the Arts Council and a further €23,000 from the Theatre Development Fund. It also obtained €101,500 from funding agencies. Income from patrons was steady at €59,884 with earnings from co-producers rising from €77,702 to €90,498.

The festival employed 24 people last year with staff costs, including wages and salaries of €449,388.

Established in 1957, the festival last year presented 29 productions, of which 18 were Irish projects.

This year’s festival takes place from September 29th to October 16th with a programme of 28 productions, almost half of them world premieres.