For our final recap article in which we have looked back at the workshops that graced the INTIX 2025 Inspiration Stage, we travel across the pond to speak with Leon Gray, Head of Ticketing and Audience Experience for the Edinburgh International Festival. His session, titled “Developing a Holistic Pricing Strategy for Edinburgh International Festival,” was one of the more forward-thinking considering INTIX 2025 was held back in January, and the Scottish annual arts fest is not until Aug. 2–25.
But it was still quite timely since arts and cultural organizations across the United Kingdom and elsewhere have continued to face an uncertain future in the post-COVID world, made even more uncertain by rising operating costs and a difficult environment for corporate sponsorship — all combined with a cost-of-living crisis that continues to impact ticket sales and donations.
Leon Gray
Event organizers and ticketing professionals have had to become both more strategic and creative as result, hence holistic pricing. Gray says, “Holistic means we are considering everyone when it comes to setting prices. I guess another word to describe it would be ‘inclusive.’ Pricing is subjective — everything is worth what someone will pay for it — and this is especially true when it comes to buying tickets for cultural experiences. However, we also know that cost is a barrier for many people.”
As a result, Gray and his colleagues have developed a strategy that balances the organizational need to maximize revenue through flexible, or dynamic (demand-based), pricing with the requirement to offer affordable ticket prices for customers who are a little more price sensitive. It’s a delicate balance to get right, for sure — one that requires careful monitoring of sales and discount value throughout the sales cycle.
What does it mean in practice? “Well, we continue to offer a wide range of prices with more options at both the lower and upper ends of the scale,” Gray says. “We will push base prices where we see little price resistance. But we will retain strict controls on flexible pricing, working with our current partner DynamO. We’re drawing on the DynamO proprietary pricing technology and expertise to help refine our strategy over the course of the sales cycle, with the overall aim to boost ticket revenue while making the festival more accessible to wider audiences.”
To this end, the event has put in place a price commitment: At least 50% of the tickets sold for the 2025 International Festival will be £30 (about US$39.90) or under. Gray adds, “We also offer a generous package of concessions. Our headline concession is the £10 Affordable Ticket — available across every event in the 2025 festival program and available for anyone who might need to use them, with no checks or restrictions. We offer half-price tickets to people who identify as D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent, as well as offering free tickets for anyone who requires an Essential Companion.”
Also, Gray and Co. offer 10,000-plus heavily discounted or free tickets to young people via the festival’s Young Musicians Pass scheme. Gray says, “We offer half-price tickets to young people under the age of 18 and a 30% discount for anyone under the age of 30. In addition, we continue to partner with Tickets for Good, offering free tickets for NHS and charity sector workers and cost of living payment recipients.”
At INTIX 2025, Gray used his time on stage to chart the development of the Edinburgh International Festival’s holistic pricing strategy over the previous two festival cycles. He also explored what the future holds in store for the 2025 International Festival.
So, what were the one or two key takeaways he hopes attendees took away from his workshop? Gray replies, “The first takeaway is don’t be afraid to experiment. We’d been doing a manual version of flexible pricing for many years but recognized the revenue and efficient impact of partnering with a company that specialized in dynamic pricing. When we engaged with Digonex in 2023, we very much treated it as a pilot project. We did not set ourselves ambitious revenue targets, and we approached the first year with a mindset to experiment and learn from the experience. You’ll never get everything right. We’re continuing to adapt and refine our approach to pricing in response to the lessons we have learned over the past two years, as well as the feedback we have been given, both positive and negative.”
He continues, “The second takeaway is to maintain transparency. Tell your customers what you are doing and why you are doing it. Consumers can cope with the idea that a price may vary over time. People experience it all the time, whether it’s airline or train tickets, filling up the car with gas, or taking an Uber home after a night out. But people are just not used to when the price of something rises to something which feels uncomfortably high or unfair, especially when they weren’t expecting it.”
Gray is a big proponent of customers being made aware of pricing policies from the start so they can make informed choices about ticket purchases. “Transparency builds trust and manages expectations,” he reasons. “But keep the message simple to avoid confusing your customers.”
Gray went on to empathize with those venue operators reading this who are hesitant, even afraid, to implement flexible pricing. For those organizations like his — regularly funded with a commitment to engaging with the broadest possible audience — the key is to strike a careful balance between revenue maximization and offering affordable pricing for those who need it.
He says, “First, we will always adopt a dual strategy of revenue maximization where demand dictates, but also price decreases to stimulate a volume of sales where we see price resistance. This means we are open to reducing the price of tickets as well as increasing them. We set fair minimum and maximum prices and implement small, incremental increases for high-demand events to prevent extreme price fluctuations.”
Other than that, Gray recommends prioritizing loyal audiences. Consideration of priority groups is at the core of the Edinburgh International Festival’s pricing strategy. His organization’s members are exempt from flexible pricing during the priority booking period to continue to incentivize the benefits of membership.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, make sure you monitor price changes regularly. Gray explains that having human oversight over the process is essential to catching “pricing anomalies, negative customer feedback or shifts in the market … All initiatives are factored into our pricing strategy from the start, and the discount value is monitored throughout the sales cycle to ensure we stay on track.”
The Edinburgh International Festival is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading multi-genre performing arts festivals. For three weeks every August, the program features some of the top performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre. Founded in 1947, the International Festival was the inspired idea of Rudolf Bing, a cultural pioneer and Jewish refugee of the Nazi regime. He joined with artistic and civic leaders to create an event all concerned hoped would transcend political boundaries through a global celebration of performing arts in Scotland’s capital city.
Gray says, “Edinburgh is the Festival City in August, with hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world flocking to the capital to see events from one of the six festivals taking place in the city each summer. But the Edinburgh International Festival is the one that started it all. Our unique, renowned model has informed and influenced the shape and model of festivals around the world.”
And it will continue to do so with this year’s edition. As of mid-May, where is planning at? Gray was quick to answer: “We’ve been on sale for the 2025 International Festival since March, and the response to this year’s program has been incredible. Our friends members priority booking day (1,700 members) and public booking day have been the busiest since I started working at the festival, and we’re already tracking way ahead of our targets. It looks set to be a bumper year of sales for 2025!”
And what has him most excited about this year's fest? “I’m a massive dance fan, and this year’s program looks inspirational. There’s the world premiere of Scottish Ballet’s ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’, as well as ‘Figures in Extinction’ from dance and theatre legends Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney with Nederlands Dans Theater. And ‘Dance People’, from Lebanese-French dance company Maqamat and choreographer Omar Rajeh, will undoubtedly astound, set outdoors against the striking background of Edinburgh University’s Old College Quad.”
Gray concludes, “But, most of all, I’m just excited to be in Edinburgh in August! The city is a melting pot of creativity and culture with something for everyone. It really is the place to be!”
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