ARTISTS and arts lovers stand to benefit from ticketing behemoth Computicket being given the heave-ho by the Eastern Cape-based National Arts Festival (NAF) this year in favour of Via, an innovative multi-platform ticketing system developed specifically for arts festivals.
The Via system was designed by Red61, an Edinburgh Fringe arts and IT company chaired by former Rhodes drama student William Burdett-Coutts, and is now used globally.
In 1974, 40 years ago, Burdett-Coutts performed in the first-ever National Arts Festival’s first-ever show, King Lear, and the company’s MD, Tony Davey said it made them proud that Grahamstown had become the first African festival to use their system.
“Introducing Via to Grahamstown 40 years later makes us proud,” said Davey.
NAF CEO Tony Lankester (subs: Lankester) said the smart phone, app-friendly system handled 2.5-million ticket sales every August at the the world’s largest arts event in Edinburgh.
Via went live in Grahamstown on May 9, at the same time that the NAF launched their new, simplified web site.
Lankester said: “We had some glitches integrating the two systems, but they were mostly ironed out.”
The new NAF website, when fed up to 20 show selections, automatically designs a schedule working in time to eat, drink and shop.
He said the Via system had reduced service charges levied against artists from 6% of each of over 200 000 tickets sold, down to four percent, while a complimentary ticket no longer attracted a R1.14 fee.
He said Red61 had also agreed to a soft-entry payment from the business by taking 2% of every ticket sale, while NAF will take the other 2% plus a standard 10% commission.
Lankester said: “We are tracking ticket sales and they are at the same pace as last year. In fact, we are selling slightly more.”
“It was time to look for a new global best-practice system designed for festivals so we can own, shape and develope it ourselves. We looked for security and simplicity. Customers don’t want to spend hours navigating a cumbersome site with archaic rules.”
A My Festival App, which will allow festinos to buy tickets “on the fly” using their smart phone, tablet or laptop, will be launched just before the bumper 40th National Arts Festival which runs from July 3-13 in Grahamstown.
NAF will also be offering self-help swipe machines similar to those at airports. The main outlay for NAF had been 24 ticket printers bought for R388 15, but Lankester said they expected to pay for the system by the end of next year.
“We will be distributing the software for Red61 in South Africa. Two festivals have already fallen in love with the system and have approached us to use it along with our printers,” said Lankester.
The system would also be put to the test for the National Arts Festivals first-ever Cape Town Fringe festival in August.
Lankester said they had bypassed paying hundreds of thousands of rands charged by SA banks to be certified to be integrated into their credit system, and said the manual swipe system used by smaller businesses would only add a few seconds to the transaction.
To get around the prohibitive integration fee, they were using an already credited service provider, Pay You.
“SA banks are not geared to letting small merchants integrate credit card transactions directly into their websites,” he said.
He said ticket sales would be “a lot faster”.
“Artists will log in and watch their tickets actually being sold on a web site. Next year they will be able to sell tickets for their shows from their own Facebook page.”
“Our software has become the standard for arts events around the world. We sell tickets in Edinburgh, Adelaide, Brighton, Perth and Abu Dhabi,” said Davey.
“We designed the system to be able handle one production or venue in one day as easily as it can a multi-venue environment like Edinburgh which has hundreds of performances on at any given moment,” he said.
New ‘My Festival’ app bypasses Computicket
The Via system was designed by Red61, an Edinburgh Fringe arts and IT company chaired by former Rhodes drama student William Burdett-Coutts, and is now used globally.
In 1974, 40 years ago, Burdett-Coutts performed in the first-ever National Arts Festival’s first-ever show, King Lear, and the company’s MD, Tony Davey said it made them proud that Grahamstown had become the first African festival to use their system.
“Introducing Via to Grahamstown 40 years later makes us proud,” said Davey.
NAF CEO Tony Lankester (subs: Lankester) said the smart phone, app-friendly system handled 2.5-million ticket sales every August at the the world’s largest arts event in Edinburgh.
Via went live in Grahamstown on May 9, at the same time that the NAF launched their new, simplified web site.
Lankester said: “We had some glitches integrating the two systems, but they were mostly ironed out.”
The new NAF website, when fed up to 20 show selections, automatically designs a schedule working in time to eat, drink and shop.
He said the Via system had reduced service charges levied against artists from 6% of each of over 200 000 tickets sold, down to four percent, while a complimentary ticket no longer attracted a R1.14 fee.
He said Red61 had also agreed to a soft-entry payment from the business by taking 2% of every ticket sale, while NAF will take the other 2% plus a standard 10% commission.
Lankester said: “We are tracking ticket sales and they are at the same pace as last year. In fact, we are selling slightly more.”
“It was time to look for a new global best-practice system designed for festivals so we can own, shape and develope it ourselves. We looked for security and simplicity. Customers don’t want to spend hours navigating a cumbersome site with archaic rules.”
A My Festival App, which will allow festinos to buy tickets “on the fly” using their smart phone, tablet or laptop, will be launched just before the bumper 40th National Arts Festival which runs from July 3-13 in Grahamstown.
NAF will also be offering self-help swipe machines similar to those at airports. The main outlay for NAF had been 24 ticket printers bought for R388 15, but Lankester said they expected to pay for the system by the end of next year.
“We will be distributing the software for Red61 in South Africa. Two festivals have already fallen in love with the system and have approached us to use it along with our printers,” said Lankester.
The system would also be put to the test for the National Arts Festivals first-ever Cape Town Fringe festival in August.
Lankester said they had bypassed paying hundreds of thousands of rands charged by SA banks to be certified to be integrated into their credit system, and said the manual swipe system used by smaller businesses would only add a few seconds to the transaction.
To get around the prohibitive integration fee, they were using an already credited service provider, Pay You.
“SA banks are not geared to letting small merchants integrate credit card transactions directly into their websites,” he said.
He said ticket sales would be “a lot faster”.
“Artists will log in and watch their tickets actually being sold on a web site. Next year they will be able to sell tickets for their shows from their own Facebook page.”
“Our software has become the standard for arts events around the world. We sell tickets in Edinburgh, Adelaide, Brighton, Perth and Abu Dhabi,” said Davey.
“We designed the system to be able handle one production or venue in one day as easily as it can a multi-venue environment like Edinburgh which has hundreds of performances on at any given moment,” he said.
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