The Charlottetown Festival 2007 ended last weekend on a very high note. On Friday, the cast of The British Invasion: A Musical Revue presented its last performance of the year to an enthusiastic sold-out crowd. On Saturday, Anne™ aficionados came to say goodbye to their favourite characters.
The Charlottetown Festival had one of its best years in 2007. Sales exceeded expectations and audience reviews for all five shows–Anne of Green Gables-The Musical™, The British Invasion: A Musical Revue, Shear Madness, Salt-Water Moon, and Alberta Fusion were glowing. Spectators were once more thrilled to witness the antics of Tony, the owner of the Shear Madness hair salon. It was the first time in quite a number of years that the Charlottetown Festival presented a non musical theatre production and theatre fans had rave reviews for David French’s Salt-Water Moon. The Young Company inaugurated a new series of shows with Alberta Fusion and spectators were delighted to witness a stampede and a hockey game in downtown Charlottetown, and the Festival held the first-ever five day long P.E.I. Fringe Festival.
“The Charlottetown Festival experienced a fabulous summer in 2007,” commented David MacKenzie, CEO of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. “Overall our revenues were up 6% over last year. We knew that British Invasion was going to be a hit with our audience, but its success was even greater than we anticipated. Sales increased by 22% over last year’s Canada Rocks sales.”
A closer look at our data reveals that approximately 63% Islanders were booking the tickets British Invasion compared to close to 70% last year for Canada Rocks! Interestingly, the number of Islanders attending our show has remained fairly steady but we have seen a dramatic increase of our sales from off-Island.
On behalf of the Upper Room Food Bank, the Centre would like to thank all patrons for their generous donations. At the end of July, the Centre started collecting non-perishable food items for the Upper Room Food Bank. The summer months are often the most difficult time for food banks, and unfortunately this summer was no exception. In July, the Food Bank’s supplies were only half of that of July 2006.
The Charlottetown Festival and The British Invasion are sponsored by APM group. Media sponsors for The Festival are The Guardian, CBC-TV and CBC Radio.
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Media contact: Brenda Gallant, Director of Marketing and Development, (902) 628-6113