Festival fails to attract punters

Auckland's budding arts festival, AKO5, has been beset by low ticket sales.

Festival chief executive David Malacari confirmed yesterday that attendance at events had been disappointing, but he was upbeat about the future.

Developing a box-office audience took time, he said, and the Auckland City Council, which will pick up the tab for any loss, was fully committed to the festival over the long term.

AK05 was not a flop. "By every other measure the festival has been an incredible success."

Mr Malacari, who is from Adelaide, where he spent 12 years with the Adelaide Festival and was production manager for three Womad world music festivals, had no figures to give but when asked if AK05 would make a loss, said it had "fairly healthy contingencies".

The first festival, AKO3, won critical approval but ran at a loss of about $300,000. Ratepayers ended up covering about $1.5 million of its bill.

Mr Malacari said he was disappointed that more people did not see the Three Furies and the Bangarra Dance Theatre production of Bush.

He believed British actor Stephen Berkhoff's one-man show, Shakespeare's Villains: A Masterclass in Evil, did "okay" but it was not an AK05 presentation. Although the show was part of the festival, it was an umbrella event, meaning it was put on independently.

Margi Mellsop, the former director of Auckland's Comedy Festival, said that took three or four years before it broke through the 100,000-patron mark or provoked what organisers called a ticket feeding frenzy.

She was surprised to learn of AKO5's low ticket sales because shows she had been to all had good houses.

"It takes time for people to understand that you have got a small amount of time to see a maximum number of shows."