The Floral Pavilion in New Brighton is continuing to be a huge success with both locals and a large audience from Cheshire, Liverpool and beyond.
Between April 2010 and March 2011 the Floral Pavilion Theatre staged 238 performances to which 130,103 tickets were sold; an average of 72% seats were sold over the period with many performances selling out a long way in advance. This figure does not include concerts staged in the conference centre and plaza but does include the 56 Homegrown shows (amateur or dance school) which took to the Floral stage in this period.
Tickets to these 238 performances were sold in 28,016 transactions of which 17,440 were made by people that had not been to the Floral Pavilion before. This means that not only 62% of the audience were new to the venue bringing new business to the area and but 38% of the audience had been retained from the previous year.
On certain shows the Floral offered discounted tickets to families and the over 60’s. Many took advantage of these reductions with 7,852 people buying family tickets as well as 10,634 tickets sold to people under 16. People aged between 16 and 25 purchased 582 specially priced tickets and 27,864 tickets were sold to the over 60’s.
The Floral provided both signed and audio described performances and even arranged a “touch tour” around the set of one show helping to bring the performance to live to a group of visually impaired audience members. 1,223 tickets were sold (at a reduced rate) to disabled customers who were accompanied by 510 people that were issued with a reduced rate carer ticket.
The Floral runs a very popular membership scheme that offers people the chance to book two weeks before the general public and then gives either 15% or 10% off the price of a concessionary ticket depending on the level of scheme purchased. Over the past year the team at the Floral Pavilion have been listening to member’s comments and have decided to make a few changes to the schemes to make them more attractive and beneficial to members. It has now been agreed with promoters bringing shows to the Floral that every professional show in the Theatre will have a discount attached to it. This amazing new guarantee will take affect on all the new shows in the new brochure due out in May, some of the larger shows may have restrictions on the day on which reductions are offered but they will always be available, however, the Floral will not be able to offer discounts on Homegrown shows and local dance school events.
As well as extending the benefits available to members the Floral are also beginning a series of Pre Performance events designed to make the night out a more enjoyable experience. These events are free to members and £3 to non members and are designed to be a bit of fun with the staff of the Floral Pavilion and bring the theatre to life. They are currently booking for a Gilbert and Sullivan quiz (5th Jun) before “A Feast of Gilbert and Sullivan, a Night at the Movies quiz 13th May before the Soundpower Orchestra perform the best sound tracks from the movies and “The Theatre of Agatha Christie Pre Performance Talk” (23rd May ) before the performance of Verdict.
In 2011 – 2012 the Communications Team at the Floral Pavilion plan to develop the number of group bookers attending performances. In 2010 / 2011 the number that attended in groups between 15 and 49 people was 7266 (a decrease of 19% on last year) however the number of people in groups larger than 50 people was 18,510 (an increase of 17.9% on last year) the feedback was the Floral was an excellent place to bring groups and this is reflected in the increase of group size in attendance. 59 schools attended performances at the Theatre in this financial year.
The Floral has been engaged with many community and educational projects over the past 12 months and will continue to work with local schools as often as possible. Notable projects were the creation of a Creative Media Diploma with St Mary’s College which allowed students the opportunity to work in a professional theatre environment and the formation of The Choral Pavilion, a choir that meets once a week at the venue and has a great time learning songs and performing together. This year the choir have been concentrating on music from the 50’s and 60’s and have had a great time, they are still looking for members so if you fancy joining the fun contact the Floral for more information.