The Edinburgh Fringe announced today that it will be closed to counter and telephone sales again on Sunday 27 July due to ongoing problems with its new box office system. Online ticket sales will not be affected.
It's the third time that the Fringe has suspended telephone and counter ticket sales, since the box office opened on 9th June, due to technical problems with its ticketing system (see earlier ticket turmoil story). The Fringe officially runs from 3-25 August, but venues start their preview shows on Wednesday 30 July.
Today, the Fringe Office announced that they are working together with Assembly, the Pleasance, the Gilded Balloon, and Underbelly, the "Big Four" venues that make up the new Edinburgh Comedy Festival, who operate an independent and fully functioning box office system.
In the latest announcement on its web site the Fringe says that the Big Four's box office system is being adopted in locations run by C Venues, Sweet Venues, Universal Arts Theatre, St Augustine's and the Vault.
The Fringe statement adds:
"To allow work on installing the system the main Fringe Box Office will be closed for telephone, counter sales and collections on Sunday 27 July, all website sales will continue as normal."
It points out that many people who have pre-ordered Fringe tickets should be receiving them by post.
The Fringe says: "To date we have printed and mailed out tickets for the preview week, week one and week two. That's over 100,000 tickets.
Please be advised that ticket collections from the Box Office are not available as yet."