The Blyth Festival Has Been Named An International Favourite Destination

by Bob Montgomery

Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt says winning Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award 2024 is a real honour and puts the icing on the cake for the 2024 season.

Garratt explains Tripadvisor is like a certifying body that helps to guide travellers to great tourism destinations, including restaurants, museums, and theatres, and he's thrilled to see the Blyth Festival get this kind of recognition. And it's one more thing that demonstrates the kind of season they've had this year. Garratt says one-third of the tickets sold this year were bought by people who had never been to the Blyth Festival before. And what better way to build new audiences than to have first time visitors come to the Blyth Festival and then go home and tell their friends about their experience. Garratt says he's been told by Tripadvisor that this award puts them in the top ten listings from around the world, which is pretty incredible.

And Garratt says it also reflects the kind of year the Blyth Festival's 50th anniversary has been. “This summer we sold about 25-thousand tickets and we hadn't done that since 2019. It's been an incredible return of audience and it was very gratifying just to walk into the theatre and see a sold out house. And it happened throughout the summer.”

Garratt says the new outdoor Harvest Stage has also been a factor, and some people even come for the matinee indoors and then stay for the evening presentation on the outdoor stage so that's been a huge success. And now they’re busy working on what they can do next year to top this year.