Adelaide Fringe is sorry to hear that some artists who performed at The Palace Society in Fringe World Perth have not been paid their box office income. We are acutely aware that this situation will have a devastating impact on the artists' livelihoods. 

Adelaide Fringe is an open access festival; artists register their own events in the Adelaide Fringe, and in some cases, venues register the shows on the artists’ behalf. In the latter situation, the venue receives the box office settlement and then pays on the percentage due to the artist based on their individual contract. 

To minimise the risk involved with these arrangements, this year Adelaide Fringe introduced a new process where artists could request a direct ‘split payment’ of the box office income.

This form of payment at Adelaide Fringe allows artists to have their percentage of the box office settlements paid directly to them, even if the venue registers their show, and then the venue’s percentage of takings are paid separately to the venue by the Adelaide Fringe. In this new scenario, no party is holding the other party’s money.

We had a good response to our new process when we introduced it this year; 130 Adelaide Fringe acts chose the split payment option which meant they didn’t have to rely on their venue to receive their percentage of box office settlement. 

Artists are at the centre of everything we do and we are committed to improving the financial position of Adelaide Fringe registered artists in whatever way we can. To help maximise the amount of money that is paid to our artists from their sales, Adelaide Fringe has abolished inside charges on tickets under $35 and halved inside charges for tickets above $35. As a result of this, almost $1million extra was paid out in box office settlements this year compared to what would have been paid if the inside charges had remained the same. We’re always looking for ways to help our artists and venues, and we will continue to review and improve how we service artists and venues at Adelaide Fringe.