Advance bookings plea to protect Norfolk theatres
Three performances have been cancelled at the Corn Hall this year because of low sales, and other have been postponed to a later date. The change in habit to favour late bookings is something that Mr Johnson said became more "prominent" after the COVID 19 pandemic. "I think people became so used to events getting cancelled during that difficult time," he said."You'd book a ticket, and the show would be cancelled, or it would get shunted forwards by six months, then something else would happen."
Mr Johnson said the cancellations had an "immense" effect on both the theatre's finances and reputation. "It's not just the impact on the charity when we need to refund people, but people also think, 'well if they've cancelled that, what else are they going to cancel'."I really don't want to cancel any shows, but when you're talking to producers who say we are not going to make any money out of this, we are left with no other option."
Adam Taylor, chief executive of Norfolk charity The Garage Trust, said he has also noticed a shift in consumer habits.He runs both The Garage theatre in Norwich, and The Workshop performing arts venue in King's Lynn."We are seeing the same trends that are being reported by a number of other theatres across the county in terms of ticket sales being much, much later than they were before," he said.
'Rising costs'
Mr Taylor said this meant more unpredictability with box office sales, and changes to programme to reflect it."Our programmes might now be more risk averse than they were three or four years ago, presenting less of a broad stroke in programmes," he said. "Coming out of the pandemic we assumed that things were going to reset, and they very much haven't... Behaviours have changed quite substantially."UK Theatre, which supports theatres and practitioners, said they were beginning to see audiences returning to advance bookings. Hannah Essex, co-chief executive, said: "Encouragingly, there has been a marked return to earlier booking habits among regional audiences."While theatre is more popular than ever, many venues are facing rising costs with flat or declining public investment – a situation that is increasingly unsustainable."If we are to secure the future of regional theatres for the next generation of audiences and creatives, we must ensure there is a strategy for sustainable long-term investment."
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