35th
18-28 May 2006
Van Morrison
Elaine Paige
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Anne Sofie Von Otter
English Touring Opera
Tallis Scholars
Palladian Ensemble
Ballet Russe
The Buzzcocks
Karen Dunbar
June Tabor
Reduced Shakespeare Company
Barry Cryer & Ronnie Golden
Girl Talk
Rosebud -The Lives of Orson Welles
Tall Stories
Michael Marra
Shooglenifty
La Boum!
Amazozo Luminarium 18-21 May
Beatrix Potter Exhibition
PERTH FESTIVAL of the Arts in Scotland will maintain a “top level of quality” as they reflect on possibly their best-selling year to date.
Figures have still to be collated but the organisers reckon this year’s event has been a boom and there is an optimistic outlook for its future.
The festival has a history of managing to attract established artists and this year was no exception with Van Morrison and Elaine Page the top billing, and yesterday Sandra Ralston, administrator of Perth Festival of the Arts, told The Courier she was delighted with the public’s response.
“We have still to finish evaluating the figures, but it looks like sales were up 25%,” she said. “This follows on from a 10% rise last year and 40% the year before, so it’s quite a dramatic increase in the last three years.”
She pointed to the quality of performers as the reason behind the festival’s popularity and people came from far and wide to see the acts. She said, “We consistently try to get artists who are at the top of their profession and this wasn’t only Van Morrison and Elaine Page. People like The Tallis Scholars and Anne Sofie von Otter are world-renowned and that’s our aim—to attract top quality artists.
“There were a lot of visitors from America who had come across to see the festival and a lot of people joined the Friends of the Festival to watch Van Morrison and a woman travelled from Germany just to see Elaine Page. We had people travelling from Australia after they had seen our website, which had a lot of ‘hits’ this year.”
