The Adelaide Fringe has become the first Australian festival to sell 1 million tickets, according to organisers, attracting record crowds over the past four weeks.
Just before the opening weekend, SA Health released modelling warning of an imminent spike in COVID-19 infections in South Australia, peaking at 6,000 cases a week.
But that did not deter crowds keen to enjoy the first Fringe since the start of the pandemic that was free of restrictions.
The government said this year's Fringe had resulted in a 35 per cent increase in visitors from interstate and overseas compared to the previous record year in 2020.
The millionth ticket was bought at 10:01pm Sunday on the final night of the Fringe, and the total number of tickets purchased has since reached 1,000,916.
"It started out with the biggest opening weekend, and it really never stopped from there," festival director Heather Croall said.
"Every single night, people came out. Some nights we sold 30,000 tickets."
The number of COVID-19 infections during the festival was fewer than predicted, with the latest SA Health data showing 2,347 cases recorded last week.
"We haven't seen that people stayed home," Ms Croall said.
"It's very exciting that people could come out. We have a lot of outdoor activities, and a lot of venues are outdoors."
After two years of closed borders or travel restrictions, this year's festival also attracted a record number of interstate and overseas tourists.
"We've had 45,000 tourists, which is a 35 per cent increase on the other record-breaking year of 2020," SA Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said.
Ms Michaels said the ticket sale milestone was an incredible accolade for the state.
"The Adelaide Fringe is iconic and the second largest arts festival in the world, and now, for it to become the first Australian festival to ever sell 1 million tickets, well and truly cements our reputation as the arts capital of Australia," she said.
Ms Croall said visitors to the state were usually big spenders.
"We're expecting the average spend of a tourist to be about $2,400 per tourist, maybe a little bit more," she said.
"If you look at that, the economic boost for the state will be over $100 million."
