- Sydney Fringe Festival has confirmed record-breaking numbers, selling the most tickets in its 15-year history.
- The month-long event’s success should be seen as a sign for the local government to invest more in the arts.
- It was the first year leading the festival of Sydney Fringe’s current CEO, Patrick Kennedy.
It’s official: Sydney Fringe Festival 2025 was one for the record books, posting the highest ticket sales and largest number of participating artist’s in the festival’s 15-year history.
Across September, the Sydney Fringe’s $15 flash sale accounted for more than 6,000 tickets sold in a single day.
But Fringe’s success was a month-long affair, breaking its attendance records across more than 460 events, scattered over 10 festival hubs running the full spectrum of performance, from music, comedy and dance, to visual art, circus and cabaret.
Quality programming and wider scope marked this year’s exciting Sydney Fringe Festival program. Aside from that, it seemed to be business as usual for the month-long program, transforming theatres, oft-ignored venues, garden pop-ups and urban hubs across the city.
A healthier arts scene?
“This year’s record-breaking success is a powerful reflection of Sydney’s renewed passion for live performance and the incredible talent within our independent arts sector,” said Sydney Fringe Festival CEO Patrick Kennedy, who was Head of Marketing for the festival in 2024 but only moved into the top role just months before the this year’s edition.
“Audiences are back, the night-time economy is burgeoning, artists are thriving, and the energy across the city has been electric,” he continued.
“It’s an exciting time for Sydney’s creative community, and Sydney Fringe Festival demonstrates just how vital the independent arts are to our city’s identity.”
Kennedy says these results should be a rallying call to government, commercial partners and philanthropists to invest more heavily in the independent arts scene. This seems especially important to align with Sydney’s world-class ambitions, given art and tourism go hand in hand at creating a more vibrant, exciting night-time economy in general.
We at Sydney Travel Guide managed to get out to a few of these shows in September, including the award-winning Nun Slut, which was named Best in Comedy and picked up the Hollywood Fringe Touring Award this year. Also walked away with some gongs was Alison Bennett and Rose Maher’s The Cardinal Rules, named Best in Theatre and boasting the New Zealand Fringe Tour Ready Award.
Perhaps catholicism is fair game at these off-kilter arts festivals.
You can read our review of Nun Slut over here. We also have reviews up for A Succulent Chinese Musical!? and Something Wicked.
